The Demon Twins
by Gustave Daae Y
Summary: Dipper and Mabel Pines had always been and will always be different. Dipper was abnormally smart and Mabel was abnormally fun and they both were the children of an all-powerful dream demon named Bill Cipher.
1. Chapter 1: Together at Last

**The Demon Twins**

 **Chapter 1**

Ford had known for the longest **t** ime that Dipper and Mabel were special. He had thought that it wouldn't matter throughout the twins' lives, well any more than it already has. Until Bill appeared down in the basement to make demands.

"I want my kids, Fordsie!" Bill laug **h** ed. "It's only a matter of time before they find out who they truly are!"

"You're not getting them, Cipher. They are Pines'. Not Ciphers'."

"There parentag **e** begs to differ." Bill said, laying his human form across Ford's desk. "It's very annoying that you had them adopt their mother's last name and not the last name of the man who sired them."

"Because you are not a man! You are a dream demon!" Ford yelled, "I don't even know how i **t** 's possible for them to be your kids."

"Oh it's possible, Fordsie. I can change my form into whatever I please. So I can mate with **w** hatever I please...she was a beauty." Bill smiled wickedly.

"Too bad that you destroyed her!" Ford shouted the last two words with a f **i** erce anger. "She died giving birth to the twins leaving them with only Stan as their family!"

"It was worth it." Bill shrugged. "The pathetic human fulfilled her purpose: entertaining me."

"That was not her purpose! She was my assistant! She was brilliant! She was 3 years ahead in school! She had a bright future! She was only 8 when I last saw her and the next thing I learn about her is that she got pregnant at 25 with twins. Yours! If I was there!"

"I can read your mind Fordsie and I know what you are like." Bill eased himself around Ford with the grace of a snake as his face turned darker, his smile lost and began speaking in an impression of Ford's voice.

"'We have to get those devil spawn out you, Claire!'"

And then he did a spot on impressio **n** of the decea **s** ed Claire "'Uncle Ford! We can't get rid of them!"

"'They aren't human! You were tricked! Can't you see that?'"

"'But they're my kids!'"

"'But they are His spawn!'"

"'It doesn't matter! They are Pines'!'"

"'they are Ciphers'! You have no say! You are aborting the devil spawn!'"

Ford hated to think about it...but Bill was right. While that conversation had never happened, it **w** ould have happened if Ford had stayed in this dimension. It was almost a blessing that 30 years of his life was spent in trapped in other dimensions and unable to return home: Mabel and Dipper were able to l **i** ve.

"I know I'm right, sixer. You would have aborted my **l** ittle progeny if you were here. Thank goodness for the porta **l** incident! My little kids were safe from their mean grunkle Fordsie and with the grunkle that cared about them. At some point I'm gonna have to thank ol' Stanley for that. How about...not killing him!"

"Stay away from my family, Cipher!"

"But that would make me an irresponsible parent." Bill pouted.

"As if you care about them at all. You just want their power."

"True." **B** ill didn't deny his int **e** ntions. "But like it or not: they're mine."

Bill disappeared after that, leaving Ford in a terrible mess of emotions.

…

Weirdmageddon. I **t** was a horror show alright. But nothing in the entire odd-pocalypse could compa **r** e to the horror of Bill holding Mabel and Dipper in the iron grip that w **a** s his hands.

"I got the kids, Stans! Now! Are you going to tell them our little secret or do **y** ou want me to slip?"

"What?...what do you mean?" Dipper fearfully questioned, **t** rying to reach out to his sister.

"You can't!" Stan yelled.

"Cip **h** er don't!"

"You knew that they would find out soon enough!"

"Learn what you pyramid of evil!"

Mabel b **e** gan to hit Bill's hand as hard as she could and Dipper followed her example.

"Hey kiddo's." Bill laughed, maniacally "I wouldn't be doing that to you father!"

"What?" The twins sh **o** uted in unison and stopped punching in shock.

"Ffffather?" Dipper stammered.

"There's no way." Mabel said, u **n** believingly.

"Just ask you grunkles, kiddo's." Bill hugg **e** d the small kids to his pyramid body.

"Stan! Ford!" Dipper cried out.

"What the heck is he talking about?" Mabel shouted

"Please let it not be true."

Ford's heart broke. He knew the twins had always wanted a true parent, but this was not what they wanted. The demon would surely use this parentage against them and force them to join him. But lying to their faces?

"He...he is our father...isn't he." Dipper s **t** ammered. "You don't want to answer it so...he must be..."

"That's right!" Bill ruffled Dipper's hair with his giant finger on his extra arm. "You sure gained your mother intelligence!"

"Mom..." Mabel whispered.

"Yes, your mother was quite the meat-sack." Bill giggled as he snuggled into his squirming progeny.

"How is that even possible?!" Dipper s **h** outed.

"Well, I'm not always a triangle you know..."

With that, a puff of smoke and the triangl **e** was gone and replaced with a tall, thin, blonde with black sided hair and cat like e **y** es. He wore a yellow suit with a long coat tail, black top hat, black leather gloves and golden cane.

"Sometimes I feel like being human. And I was VERY human in 1998."

"What happened in 1998?" Mabel asked.

"Yeah what...ohhh..." Dipper understood what Bill meant by that. "Oh...that's disgusting..."

Bill just laughed at his own sick joke.

"Quit it, Cipher!" Stan shouted.

"Let the kids go or I swear!" Ford shouted.

"And why should I do that, sixer?" Bill mockingly pouted, the twins trying their hardest to escape his clutches while crying at the same time. "You would just hurt them. And I can't let anything happen to my poor little children."

"Let us go!" Dipper pounded Bill's arms as hard as he could.

"Yeah, let us go you demon triangle-man thing!" Mabel said, fo **l** lowing his lead.

"You kids are sure cute!" Bill kissed both of their cheeks. "You're going to be great demons one day. But I can't let you two go to that "grunkle Ford" of yours: he was willing to kill you before, he would try it again."

"You're lying!" Mabel sh **o** uted.

"Ford would never hurt us!"

"Oh really? How about I tell the tale of what would have happened if your grunkle hadn't fallen into that portal."

"Bill, don't!" Ford demanded, his face growing red with anger.

"You just admitted to them that my story is true, sixer." Bill sneered, "Truth is, kiddos, if your grunkle were around, you wouldn't be."

"Huh?" Mabel asked

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Bill gave a clearly fake look of sadness and worry, "You were unwanted progeny of an all-powerful dream demon. So helpless and defenseless inside of your mother. You could have been gone so easily... You were a mere mishap. Almost a science experiment's bad result. You weren't supposed to exist anyways. It would have been so easy for your uncle to just..." using his extra arm, he conjured two small flames in his palm, one burning blue the other pink. "snuff the life out of you two." His closed his palm and the flames disappeared "Would save humanity from further threats of dream demons: it's not like you two were HUMAN anyways."

"Kids I never said that or thought anything of the sort!" Ford called to them. "I lo **v** e you two, I would never hurt you!"

"You also loved the shapeshifter, and the gnomes and the goblewocker...but what happened to them now Fordsie?" Bill said, feeling the kids begin to sway a bit against their uncle. "Oh yeah, you got what you wanted from them and then locked them in jars and in cages or tried to harness there power for your portal all in the name of science!"

Bill chuckled a bit at Ford's shocked face.

"That's...that's not true!"

"Oh but it is, Fordsie. That's how you are with everything you "love". You get what you can from it, jar it up and put in on a shelf where it's forgotten. You did that with your creatures, your mysteries and even your own brother. I won't let you do that to my OWN family. My little special shooting star and precious pine tree need to be safe from you."

"We trust Ford way more than we trust you, Bill!" Dipper shouted, "it doesn't matter that you claim to be our dad! It doesn't change a thing! You're still evil!"

"Oh but that's where you are wrong: it changes everything."

Bill shrank to a normal human size, but kept the twins s **e** curely in his arms. Stan and Ford looked in horror at the "family portrait" that was Bill and his kids. The twins looked so small in Bill's arms.

Bill leaned down his towering body to the cage that held Stan and Ford, his smile cold and cruel.

"I'm keeping them," Bill sneered, "and there is nothing you two can do about it. Let's go kiddos!" He spoke to the little pines twins, "time to show you your new room! See ya Fordsie and Fez!"

Stan and Ford watched in horror as Bill carried Mabel and Dipper off to a corridor of the fear-amid.

"What do we do?" Stan looked at his brother.

"I...I have a plan, but it's risky."


	2. Chapter 2: Ransom

**Chapter 2**

Bill loved the feeling of his two kids pressed against his chest. They were so tiny and weak that it was hard to believe that the two had magical powers of their own. But Bill knew that they had powers: and he was going to use them.

"Here you go kids!" Bill tossed the two twins onto a twin bed. "This is your room now." He snapped his fingers and suddenly all their belongings were in the room, "There's your stuff." He snapped his fingers but nothing happened, "And that's the spell that will keep you two in and anyone but me out. You two get settled, I've got a world to destroy. Be back later."

Bill snapped his fingers one more time and in a puff of smoke, he was gone.

 **D** ipper and Mabel took the time to cry their eyes out. The two had been raised by their Grunkle Stan after their mom had died in childbirth. They knew that their father had abandoned them but they had always desperately hoped that he would return to them.

They wanted him to abandon them aga **i** n.

They cried into each other's shoulders for what seemed like hours. Weirdmaggedon was hard enough as it was: their friends were now ta **p** estries, their home was in shambles (well more than usual) and Stan and Ford were ca **p** tured. And now they know that their absent father is the all-powerful, all-knowing dream demon that had tried to kill th **e** m all summer.

After thei **r** tears were spent and they could actually utter a fe **w** words without balling, the two looked around their new...home.

It was shocking, and horr **i** fying, to know that Bill knew the two of them incredibly well. The room was large with no windows or door for that matter. The wa **l** ls were painted, but not in a normal way. It seemed that Bill liked to use the walls as a canvas. The walls were covered in images of dark pines trees and the night sky. The cei **l** ing was painted as well to look like the galaxy and was filled with shooting stars. The detail was so convincing that if there wasn't an electric outlet in the walls, they would have thought that they were in a forest at night. The stars and tree **s** seemed to m **o** ve and act like they were real.

It was obvious to which side of the room was whose. The right side of the room was **o** bviously Dipper's. There was a large, dark wood desk covered in books and other writing supplies. His bed sheets were navy blue and had dark green pillows on it. His truck was closed and at the foot of his bed and there was a night sta **n** d beside the bed with a **l** amp on top of it, just like how it was in the mystery shack. The carpeting on his side was dark green, the same color of grass during the nighttime which tied well into the wall paper. Mabel's side was bright. She had a four poster b **e** d with hot pink drapes and bed sheets and pillows that would change color and pattern every few minute. Her bright pink trunk was at the foot of her bed but it was open and spilling its rainbow colored contents all over her pink carpet. She had a desk as well but it was silve **r** and was covered in glitter and paint so it didn't look silver anymore. There was **n** 't books or 'nerd stuff' on top of her desk: just art supplies. The biggest difference between the rooms is that **w** addles was on Mabel's side.

"I see you two are up and about now." Bill walked t **h** rough one of the walls and faces the twins. "Like the walls and ceiling? Painted it myself."

"You're a monster." Dipper s **a** id.

"That's not the response I was looking for."

"Well that's the only one you're going to get!" Mabel shou **t** ed.

"What did you do to our uncles?!"

"Trapped in my dungeon." **B** ill said casually as he spread himself on the blue couch in the center of the room. "Ford still owes me that equation to break the weirdness barrier. I didn't come this far just to terrify a few citizens of this stupid hick town."

"He's never going to tell you the secret!" D **i** pper shouted.

"Yeah! Ford knows you make bad deals!"

"You kids are right...to an extent" Bi **l** l smiled as he put his hands behind his head and made his human body comfortab **l** e on the couch. "I've just lost a lot of my leverage by taking you kids under my wing. While I don't particularly care for you two, I don't want you dead. You two have potential as demons. You two might just help me rule the galaxy once you're trained up a bit."

"We would never join you!" Dipper yelled.

"Are you sure about that, Pine tree?"

"I've made a deal with you before! I know what you're like! You are a sick and twisted monster who doesn't care about anything but world domination! You tricked me once and you are not tricking me again!"

"Are you so sure about that?" Bill stood up off of the couch and made h **i** s way over to Dipper, circling him like a predator stalking his prey, "I am known for being the devil himself, little pine tree. I can make the most saint like person a sinner: the most innocent being demented: the purest soul into a disgusting wreck."

Bill bent down to Dipper, who barely went up to Bill's knee in his human form, and cupped his face in his hand **s**.

"I can destroy entire planets by the snap of my fingers. Control the most powerful human minds with just a handshake. Demolish your soul by just batting my eyelashes. I think I can make you join me."

"Never." Dipper said with forced br **a** very.

"You think you're brave Pine tree?" Bill laughed, "Do you think you are strong enough to fight against me? Strong enough to let your family die because it will save the rest of the world? You think yourself heroic, don't you?"

"I...I...I am brave. I will not give you what you want."

Bill sighed, his wicked smile still on his lips.

"I didn't want it to come to this."

Bill snapped his **f** ingers and Ford and Stan appeared in the room: their hands and feet chained together, clothes singed and blood dripping from their heads and chest.

Dipper and Mabel couldn't bear to look at them.

"No..." Mabel whimpered.

"What did you do to them?!"

"What do you think happens in a dungeon? Fordsie you sure are h **a** rd to crack. But I plan on getting at least one thing I want today." Bill sneered.

"I'm not giving you anyth **i** ng. You're not getting the equation. I'll take it to my grave." Ford heaved, his breathe forced and unsteady.

"How does your brother feel about this?" Bill aske **d** , playing devil's advocate. "Or these kids that you care so much about? They came all this way to save you and it would almost be cruel to just give up the ghost after their hard work. How much are you willing to give up to 'save the world' that you destroyed? Besides, I've already got what I want. And it's not you, sixer."

Bill grabbed hold of Stan's neck and hoisted him up, his feet dangling in the air.

"Is it worth it, Stanford?" Bill held out his other hand, his index finger turned into a sharp silver blade, and held it against Stan's neck. "You'd be remembered as the person who let his brother die in order to save the world from the destruction you caused! How much are you willing to sacrifice to fix a problem that you started? To all three of you! How long is your stubbornness going to rule over you?" He laughed and shouted these lines, cutting Ford and the twins to the core. "I'm not hearing any pleading or begging! I guess you don't care about your dear ol' Stan as much as you say you do."

Bill used his knife-like finger to cut a bit into Stan's neck, the blood spilling on the pink carpet.

"Don't hurt him!" Mabel begged.

"Let him go, Bill!" Dipper pleaded.

"Ah so you do care! I knew that you did." Bill's Cheshire cat smile bared his l **o** ng shark like teeth. "I knew that you would come to my side eventually. You just needed some persuasion. You two will become my apprentices and learn magic! And you, Fordsie, will give the equation! And if you don't listen...I don't like the color of this carpet! I think it needs more red! Don't you agree Stanley?"

Stan made a choking noise in response.

"...I'll...I'll do anything you ask..." Ford admitted defeat, weeping in desperation. "Please...don't kill my brother..."

"That's what I thought." Bill dropped Stan's body to the ground. "You two, I'll be gone for a bit. Clean up your room while I'm gone and get the blood out of the carpet. I will have it be all pink and green or all red: no in between. I've got some business to take care of."

Bill snapped his **f** ingers and Stan and Ford were transported out of the room, but not without one last pleading look from the classic Pines twins towards Dipper and Mabel. In just that glance, Mabel and Dipper knew that they were saying 'I love you two: kick some triangle butt' and they would make good on that assignment.

"It seems that Stanley was finally useful to someone." Bill sneered as his body faded, transporting him out of the room, his wicked, fanged smile the last thing to leave the room.


	3. Chapter 3: Bait

**Chapter 3**

Being woken up earlier than you want is always horrid. Now imagine being woken up extremely early by a man who you think wants to kill you? That's just plain wrong. Welcome to Dipper and Mabel's new life.

"Rise and shine, Pine Tree!" Bill echoey voice filled the room, "It's time to get up and learn how to swap a giraffe's head with an alligators! You too **S** hooting Star!"

"Five more minutes…" Mabel grumbled into her pillow.

"Sure," Bill smiled his Cheshire cat smile, "You can s **t** ay in bed for five more minutes…"

Bill snapped his fingers and Mabel's blanket became a giant human tongue. Mabel squealed and quickly unwrapped herself from the slimy severed tongue and bolted to the other side of the room.

"I guess you don't want to sleep after all. Come on, Pine Tree. You're sister's already up." Bill transported his human form onto Dipper's bed and hovered over him, making Dipper feel uncomfortable beyond all reason. "Don't make me do something that you will regret."

Bill couldn't help but laugh at Dipper's frightened face as he covered below him. His large brown eyes were wide with terror. He overall just looked like a deer in the head lights. How cute!

Dipper r **a** pidly squirmed out of the bed and stood beside his sister.

"Well that was easier than I thought. I didn't even have to specifically threaten you." Bill said, "You must be really terrified of me, huh Pine Tree?"

"Do you blame me?!" Dipper shouted, "You tried to kill me and my family several times! You tortured my uncles!"

"Face the facts, kid, I am your family." Bill booped Dipper's nose, "You have to live with the fact that you are the spaw **n** of the devil. And remember, kids, I hold your uncles lives in my hand. I'd behave if I were you. Now that we have all the teen age boy hormones, threatening step-in dads and identity crisis out of the way, let's get to the really fun stuff!"

The things that Bill described as 'fun stuff' included messing around with animal body part, attempting to shape shift and trying to make weapons appear out of nowhere. Mabel was a natural at the magic that Bill was teaching them. Since she had a wild imagination, the crazy (and disturbing) things that Bill wanted them to do came easy. Dipper was, in one word, a struggle. Dipper tried his hardest to just do something as simple as changing the color of a flower from pink to red (which Bill said was baby-magic) fearing that if the color didn't change Bill would take a few years off of Stan and Ford **'s** lives. Which was a valid fear because he told Dipper that he would take a year off of their lives if Dipper didn't succeed. He said that death was always a good motivation tool.

But try as he might, Dipper couldn't do anything magical. Well at least correctly. It was clear to see that Dipper did possess powers. He just sucked at using them. When he tried to teleport himself to the other side of the room (another basic skill according to Bill) his lower body decided to be rebellious and not transport the rest of him. At first, Bill didn't react at all to Dipper's panicked screaming, but after a few minute Bill just snapped his fingers and Dipper's upper and lower body were reconnected. Another disaster was when Dipper tried to conjure up fire. Mabel easily conjured up a bright pink flame and played around with it for a little while before accidentally setting Dipper's hair on fire. Both Bill and Mabel got a few laughs out of that one. Dipper tried to make fire but do to his an **g** er at Bill (and a little at Mabel for setting his head ablaze) he soon lost control of the bright blue flames and he burned himself and a bit of the carpet around him.

"Pine Tree, I am prohibiting you from using magic unless I'm here." Bill said, a bit formally. Well, a bit less jokily that usual which was saying a lot for him.

"Why? You don't want me to get hurt or something?"

"No. I just don't want to miss out on your pain! It's hila **r** ious how much you suck at this!" Bill laughed, his pointed, sharp and deadly shark teeth in full view. "It's rather embarrassing on my part that my heir can't even summon fire correctly or transport himself across the room without killing himself. Good thing that Mabel is the first born and not you!"

Bill then picked up Mabel and threw her into the air, playfully though. As a normal father would do to his normal daughter. It seemed really weird seeing a dream demon doing it though.

"You were great, Mabel!" Bill s **a** id, hugging Mabel close, her legs wrapped around his torso. "I always knew you were powerful and crazy and loads of fun. Promise me that you'll rub off on Pine Tree?"

"Of course!"

Why on earth was Mabel s **m** iling, Dipper thought. She couldn't possibly be actually enjoying this. He was torturing their family and keeping them here against their will. How could she possibly be smiling?

They worked at the magic for hours. Or at least what felt like hours. It was hard to tell what time it was considering there was no clock or window or anything to tell what time it was. It could be 3 in the morning and the twins would have no idea. Eventually, Bill called it a day and had the twins put to bed saying that Pine Tree was going to pass out at any **m** oment. Bill wasn't wrong. Dipper was exhausted. The twins quickly got into their bed and prepared to go to sleep.

"Bill, where did you come from?" Mabel asked, as a child would ask their mother or father or a fairy tale before they fall asleep. Which, in a weird way, was actually occurring.

"Another dimension that's gone now." Bill said, smiling, but a little less than usu **a** l. "It was burned in a terrible fire that consumed the entire dimension."

"That must have been a really big fire..." Mabel yawned.

Dipper took this moment to realize that Bill was spilling his entire past: parts that might help them later. Dipper quickly, but silently, took out a notebook and wrote down everything that Bill said.

"It was huge. I escaped, being more powerful and more intelligent than the lot of them. The rest died. Something that they neve **r** thought could happen, being immortal. But it was possible and it happened. If they're not dead, they're burning in eternal agony. So alive or dead they would be in the same place."

"What started the fire?"

"I did, of course." Bill was barely smiling now, his teeth barely showing. "Those 2 dimensional mindless shapes didn't deserve life. It's not like they lived before that anyways. No passion, no color, no chaos: it **w** hat hardly living. My life wasn't worth living, my shining Shooting Star. A lowly triangle cursed to an enteral life of misery. The key to life is not to love forever but to live with yourself forever. In that dimension I was nothing. Here, I am an all power god!"

"Did you have a family?"

"Family is just a 6 letter w **o** rd. It doesn't really mean anything."

"But you said that we are your family."

"You're my kids. Kids that I'm keeping around to keep Ford in check and control the rebellions that are no doubt going to break out eventually."

Dipper wasn't sure if Mabel heard it, but Bill sounded a bit untruthful. Of course lying is one of Bill's powers, but he wasn't selling it as he usually was. Like he...he would **n'** t lie about that. Dipper knew that Bill would rather just kill them off. Bill hated them: he wouldn't lie about that.

"Nah I think you'll warm up to us." Mabel said cheerfully, "You love us and you know it."

Mabel was being way too cheerful throughout all of this, Dipper thought as he continued to write. What was wrong with her? He knew that she was usually cheerful and happy but this was border-line insane.

"Keep telling yourself that, Shooting Star."

"So what about your other rela **t** ives? You had to have them before?"

"Well. In my dimension, we had a set number of how many demons could exist. Since we were immortal, we couldn't just keep reproducing, well spawning. We were all shapes. The only time a new demon would appear is if another one was 'liberated'"

"Liberated? What does that mean?" Mabel asked curious.

"It means freed." Bill's smiled returned to it's original Cheshire Cat grin.

"It means killed, Mabel." Dipper finally spoke up. "The thing Bill means to say is killed. Death penalty. Execution."

"Go back to writing in your diary, Pine Tree. It wasn't really death. It was banishment, but it was the thing most feared." Bill explain, dipper wrote faster, "Usually it would be punishment, but sometimes it would occur because the noble circles wanted another heir. Triangles were always first to go. They would be striped of there powers and casted into another dimension."

"Did you get banished?"

"They were planning on it." Bills Cheshire Cat smile began to fade once again, "I had left the community and did some dimension hopping. I found things. Thing that I was fascinated with. Things that I wanted my world to have. Things I wanted."

"Like what?"

"Well to name a few," Bill's smile was just a small grin now, "color, depth, anger, remorse, clothing, morals, immorals, and **c** haos. All things that I had never seen or felt before. I tried bringing them back with me but they didn't share my passion for them as much as I did. So instead of them liberating me, I liberated them."

"Do you mean freed or killed?"

"I think you know the answer to that."

Silence for a little while. Dipper used this time to catch up on writing.

"Do you feel any remorse for c **a** using the fire?" Mabel asked, hesitantly.

"Not really." Bill was definitely lying, "they didn't deserve to live. They weren't living. And they tried to rid me of my powers. They had to die."

"What of your family? You implied that you had one. At least one if sorts."

"I lived with people that looked like me if that's what you mean." Bill wasn't smiling at all anymore. "I guess you co **u** ld say that they were my family. They were sort of my parents. I had 5 siblings...or was it 6? I can't remember, they weren't that important to me. I did have a sister, that much I remember."

"What was she like?"

"The exact opposite of myself. She kept me grounded in a way, telling me to be more rational and just to keep my head down. She probably saved my life a couple of time **s** by that." Bills eyes glazed over as if he wasn't really there: like he didn't realize what he was saying. "She was a triangle, like myself, but she was blue instead of yellow. She didn't know that of course, I didn't learn about colors until way later and she never found out at all. But I know that she was blue. Her name was Poppy. Back then I was called Ragweed."

"You had a different name before?"

"Yeah. Bill Cipher is the name I changed mine too. Sounds a lot cooler than Ragweed."

"Yeah. A lo **t** cooler."

"Poppy was amazing. As different as we were, we were the best of friends. She was the only person I told about the other dimensions. But s **h** e didn't agree with me...she thought it was more dangerous than it was worth..."

"Do you miss her?"

Bill didn't answer right away. And when he did, it wasn't an answer at all.

"I think it's time for you too to be in bed." Bill decided, a forced smile on his face. "Good night my shining Shooting Star. Night Pine Tree."

Bill transported himself out of the room. Finally alone, Dipper had some very choice words for his sister, but he refused to say them. While her behavior was wrong for their situation, it wouldn't be wise to make Mabel his enemy. The world itself was Dipper's enemy now. He didn't want any more enemies than he currently had.

"Did you get enough info on how to beat him?" Mabel ask **e** d in a hushed whisper.

"Huh?"

Dipper stared at her for a bit. With the light of the fake stars, Dipper gazed at her solemn, grim, lifeless face. Dipper had never seen Mabel look this way before. She was always smiling and laughing: Dipper wasn't even sure if the word 'sad' existed in her vocabulary. But here she was, looking as lifeless as a corpse.

It clicked in Dipp **e** r's head,

"You were faking all of that, weren't you?" Dipper asked, almost laughing at his stupidity.

"You thought I was serious?" Mabel said, a little bit shocked. "That I could actually care about that monster? He may be our dad, but he's still a terrible person or whatever he is. No offence Dipper, but he just likes me more than you. I wanted to use that to our advantage."

"Using your Mabel charm to get information. I never knew you were that decisive."

"You underestimate bro bro," Mabel smiled slightly. "No matter what happens, our plan will always be Take Down Bill."

"Do you think that it's even possible? Ford and Stan are captured. All of our friends are tapestries. Bill has taken over the world since he has the code to break the Gravity Falls Weirdness barrier from Ford." Dipper said, despairingly. "Is there even a cha **n** ce that we could take back our home?"

"In all honesty, Dipper," Mabel said, hopefully, "We have a better chance now than what we did before."

"How?"

"We have magic now. With my magic and your brain, we could come up with something."

Dipper thought about this all night while his sister slept. Bill was creating his own weakness in a way. Yes the twins were his pawns now, but eventually they could become powerful enough to overthrow the king. It would take a long time before Mabel's and especially Dipper's powers to even be able to distract Bill. But Mabel was right. They were better off than they were before.

That night, as he stared at the memory gun hi **d** den within the pocket of his blue vest, Dipper came up with a plan.


	4. Chapter 4: Redemption

Chapter 4

"Dipper, check out my snow angel!" Mabel said, standing up out of the snow where she had just been laying and them brushing off the thick layer of snow that encased her puffy pink snow jacket.

"Just a moment, Mabel. I wanna finish my Snowman." Dipper said and he stuck a carrot into the snowman's face for a nose.

He was trying to put two brown rocks onto the snowman's head as the eyes when a large and **f** luffy snowball hit him in the back. The Ball exploded on impact and millions of tiny little snow flurries took to the air. Dipper was not impressed.

"Hey! What was that for?" Dipper said, rubbing the place in his back where the snow ball had made contact.

"It's the magical snowball of no fun!" Mabel declared, "It **o** nly hits those who aren't having fun and changes their hearts to enjoy snow instead of being afraid of it getting on your clothes!"

Dipper laughed at how fast his sister could come up with a backstory for a snowball that was just meant to hit him for comic relief. It was true that, for the most part. Dipper was trying to keep his snow jacket nice but now…

Dipper quickly scoped up a small pile of snow and made a snowball. Unlike Mabel, whose snowballs were usually sloppily thrown together, Dipper's was perfectly spherical. He waited till his sister was at a good target point before throwing the snowball as hard as he possible could.

It only traveled a few feet before hitting the ground, far away from its intended target.

"Ah man." Dippe **r** was able say right before getting hit with another snowball right smack in the middle of his face.

Dipper recovered quickly and proceeded to chase his sister around the snow covered lawn of the Mystery Shack.

"I'm gonna get you Mabel!" Dipper said, more happy than angry.

"Gotta catch me first!" Mabel said, trudging through the knee deep snow.

The young twins had a blast, just chasing each other around in the snow. Dipper eventually cut off his sister and tackled her to the groun **d** and the two began tackling each other in the snow. Stan had come out to call the twins back in for dinner but found he had watched the twins, who had turned 5 in august, throughout all of this ordeal. It wasn't until he could no longer handle the chill from just wearing slippers that he called the twins.

"Mabel! Dipper!" Stan called to the twins. "Come on in now! It's dinner time!"

The twins got a few last tackles before rushing to the back door and following Stan back into their home.

It was Christmas. This would be the 3rd Christmas Stan had spent with Mabel and Dipper. He was determined to make this one good. The last few ones, while enjoyable, never went according to plan. Their last Christmas was spent at the fire station for accidentally setting fire to the mystery shack when Stan tried to make Christmas dinner and the year previous was spent at the police station for reasons that Stan did not want to remember but did learn a good lesson from: don't punch Santa or else bad things will happen to your spleen. This year, Stan was determined to have a perfectly normal Christmas. One without handcuffs at least.

Christmas was going pretty **w** ell. Stan got the twins a few gifts that they were excited about beyond all reason even though Stan can't remember what they were for the life of him. Stan had learned his lesson about making Christmas dinner and just bought a premade roast chicken and other Christmas food from supermarket so he just had to microwave it. So much easier and no calls to the fire department.

As Stan placed the microwaved mashed potatoes and chicken on the table, someone knocked the door.

"I got it Stan!" Mabel called from the other room.

"Stan doesn't like you answer the door Mabel." Stan heard D **i** pper say.

"Don't worry Dipstick, it's just Soos and his Gramma."

Stan heard the sound of the door creak open and then a familiar voice.

"Hey dudes!" the 13 year old Soos said.

" _ho_ _ **l**_ _a_ ," Soos' grandmother said.

"Hi Soos! Abuelita!" Mable said

"Hi Soos. Hola, Mrs. Ramirez." Dipper said.

"You dudes having a great Christmas?" Soos said as he walked into the kitchen with the rest.

"Yeah! It's been great! I totally beat Dipper at snowba **l** l fighting!"

"Hey, Mabel. You said that you weren't gonna bring that up."

"Sorry bro bro."

The rest of the evening passed in a blur and Stan honestly could remember most of it. What he did remember was just being happy. This warm feeling in his chest that he hadn't felt in a long time. Not since… No matter. Stan was happy here. He wasn't really a father to the twins, although the paperwork he signed would say otherwise, but he did view them in a way that a father would to his kids. Same could be said for Soos, in a way. Stan was never one to get e **m** otionally attached, but he was rather fond of Soos. When he hired him as a repair boy a year ago, he made the right decision. Soos was almost like an older brother to the twins and would often just come over to te **a** ch them how to play different video games and stuff like that.

That night **a** s they ate there microwaved chicken and homemade enchiladas made by Abuelita, Stan was the happiest he could ever be. Though he would **n** 't realize that this was his happiest moment until much later.

…

Ford had once again fallen asleep on his work desk which was rather annoying him. He tiredly pulled his head **u** p from the desk and rubbed his eyes. He insti **n** ctively reached for his coffee but found when he put it to his **l** ips, the cup was empty.

"Claire." Ford called to the 7 or 8 year old, "Could you get me more coffee. I'll take **i** t black"

"Sure Uncle Ford. Do you want me to get you one for Fiddleford too?"

Ford gave her a slight nod when he saw that his lab partner was out cold as well.

The short brunette routinely stood up from her des **k** in the corner of the basement and watched over to Ford to grab the cup. Ford tried to wake up and remind himself of what he was doing before he fell asleep. Rubbing his **e** yes, he had a slight memory of starting to make blueprints but on his desk lay a completely blueprint for the inter-dimensional porta **l**. His muse must have controlled his bod **y** as he slept, just like always.

His muse was a remarkably kind being.

Claire returned with the two large coffee mugs and handed one to Ford who drank it all in one gulp. His body began to restart with the addition of caffeine into his bloodstream and he went back to work looking over the blueprints trying to make some sense of what his muse had written down. Claire then walked over to Fiddleford who was passed out on the couch using what he called a 'laptop' as a pillow and shook him gently to wake him up.

"Wake up, Mr. McGucket." Claire said gently. "It's morning."

Fiddleford opened his eyes, unwillingly. He had a large dent in his forehead where his head had made contact with the large metal machine.

"...Good morning…" Fiddleford yawned as he stretched his arms.

"I got you this." Claire handed him the coffee cup. "I put extra sugar in it just how you like it."

"Thank you, sweetie." Fiddleford gave her a slight smile as he graciously took the cup from her small hands.

Claire went back to her small desk and went back to knitting. Today was technically the first day of summer, but it meant little to Claire. She was home school and spent most of her time in the corner of uncle Ford's basement just doing whatever work she was supposed to. During the summer she spent most of her time in the corner of Uncle Ford's basement knitting or reading. Ford and Claire used to play 'dungeons, dungeons and more dungeons' every weekend but it had stopped for almost a year because Ford was so focused on whatever he was doing. Claire was smart enough to know that Ford had changed: something was off about him. He was more obsessed with his work than he had ever been. Claire hoped that it was just a phase and that he would go back to being her usual loving uncle but it just seemed to be getting worse.

The sooner he completed whatever he was doing 3 floor below the better.

"Uncle Ford, I'm going into town to day to go grocery shopping. We're almost out of a lot of stuff."

"Ok Claire." Ford said without looking up from his papers. "You know where the grocery money is. Don't talk to strangers and stay out of the streets."

"Are you sure I shouldn't go with her?" Fiddleford asked Ford.

"She'll be fine. She always does this."

Fiddleford was convinced that this was a good idea. Since he grew up in Palo Alto, California, children outside was a very rare occurrence because of the busy streets and 'not so friendly' neighbors. He hardly spent his time in town or outside as a kid whereas Ford was practically kicked outside every day.

"I'll be fine." Claire assured them and she began walking up stairs. "I know the way."

Claire did the normal routine of grabbing her bike helmet out of her room and grabbing about 40 dollars out of the jar by the door that said 'grocery money' and shoving it in her pink wallet. She put on the bike helmet outside and then got onto her blue bike that had a large basket on the handlebars and sped off in the direction of the town.

Back at the shack, Ford and Fiddleford were having a discussion but were having trouble picking a subject because both men wanted to talk about something completely different than what the other man was talking about.

"We're going to need to power most of the energy through a small but sturdy opening in the…" Ford said some random science stuff that **F** iddleford was just tuning out.

"Ford. Do you think that you've gone a little too far with this experiment?" Fiddleford said. "You haven't done anything with Claire in the longest time. She says that you two always had a big trip planned every summer but you haven't so much as thought of a trip this year. When I first got her you two would always go out to eat on Saturday nights but I haven't seen you do that in some time."

"Claire understands that I have work that I need to finish." Ford said, "As soon as this is done and I publish all of my research, then I can go back to the way things used to be."

"She's technically your daughter Ford. Can't you take a break just for a day and just go to the Lake? I hear its fishing season. Didn't you always go fishing with your brother on opening fishing day?"

Ford got tense at the mention of his brother.

"It would be incredibly boring to her and a waste of time." Ford said, even though he kinda liked the idea of going on a boat with Claire. "And she's not my daughter. She's my niece that I am taking care of because my older brother Shermy is an incompetent parent who lost the right to his kid and I was the next best option. I am your guardian even if the paperwork says that I'm her adoptive father. And you have no right to tell me how to raise a child, Fiddleford, considering..."

"Considering what, Stanford?" Fiddleford said, his voice growing harsh.

"Never mind. Let's just get back to work."

"No. say it, Stanford." Fiddleford said, feeling himself growing emotional, "Say that I have no right telling you how to parent…"

"Fiddleford, I didn't mean to..."

"Because I abandoned my kid. I know that that's what you were thinking." Fiddleford started to cry slightly. "I have no right to tell you anything involving kids. What I can tell you is that if you ignore her now, just how I abandoned my own, is you will feel the most pain you will ever feel just from guilt. Don't make the same mistakes as I did, Ford."

Back in town, Claire was walking through the isle of a small grocery store. It was just routine at this point. She would go down certain aisles every time, get the same things every time and spend the same amount of money each time. Su **r** prisingly though, today she had an extra dollar and some change in her pocket which was a rar **i** ty. So after packing the groceries into the basket on her bike, she walked a little ways to an ice cream shop That Ford used to take her two after shopping. She bought a cone for herself in her favorite flavor: vanilla bean. Normal kids liked more colorful flavors but vanilla was always her favorite. It was Ford's favorite too.

As she came out of the shop, she was met with a couple of older kids. She had spent time with these boys before and it never ended well.

"Oh look it's that little science freak." The blonde haired neighborhood rich boy said as he knocked her ice cream cone to the ground.. "So were given freak powers by your crazy uncle or were you created in his science lab."

"I don't have powers, Preston. I'm not some mutant superhero or something." Claire said, looking up at the boy who was much older and much taller than her. "My uncle is just a scientist not a mad scientist."

"Yeah right. If he had sanity he would come into town and not hide away in his little shack."

"My uncle is not insane." Claire said boldly. "He is the best and smartest person in this world or any other for that matter."

"Yeah right. And I am the ugliest thing in this world." Pr **e** ston said in a heavily sarcastic voice.

"Well at least you know that much."

This statement hit a nerve in Preston.

"You take that back, you little freak."

"Make me."

Preston attempted to punch Claire in the face but he was stopped abruptly by a passersby. Claire looked up at her savior who had grabbed Preston's wrist right before making contact with Claire. He was a boy that looked her age but was a bit taller. He had blonde hair and bright amber eyes. He wore a collared yellow shirt and black pants with neon sneakers. He had long eyelashes for a boy. His face wasn't angry at the attack but was framed with an eerie smile.

"Preston." The boy said, his voice sounded a bit echoey and mature as if it belong to an adult man who wanted his voice to sound younger. "It's not really polite to hit a young lady."

The blonde new comer let go of Preston's wrist which resulted in Preston falling on the sidewalk.

"Who are you? How do you know my name?"

"Oh I know lots of things." The blonde boy said. "Like how to work a gun. I would gladly give you a demonstration."

Preston called the boy insane a couple times and swore to tell his parents as he ran away crying in fear with his silent goonies trailing after him..

"Thanks." Claire said.

"No problem, Butterfly."

Claire unconsciously looked down at her bright yellow t-shirt with a bright orange Butterfly in the center of it.

"My name is Claire."

"But Butterfly sounds cooler."

"Fine. Call me Butterfly then. What's your name?"

"William. But everybody calls me Bill."

…

"So you had no idea that she grew up being friends with your greatest enemy?" Sta **n** said as Ford finished telling Stan the story behind Dipper and Mabel's heritage, well what he knew of it.

"I had no idea Bill was evil for most of it." Ford said, his head buried in his folded arms. "If I had just opened my eyes and seen that all those times she left the house to just wander in the forest was just to hang out with Bill, I would have stopped it. If I had only followed Fiddleford's advice."

"You're not the only one to blame, Ford." Stan said. "When you went through the portal, I became Claire's guardian."

"What happened in those 30 years? I have no idea what happened to Claire other than her and Bill having twins somehow."

"When...when you went through the portal." Stan started, starting to cry, "I couldn't so much as take care of myself let alone another person. So I sent Claire into foster care. Worst mistake of my life. She ended up with a terrible family in California and Bill followed her. I think you can piece together the rest. The twins showed up at my doorstep with some government officials when they were they were about 5. The government officials told me that they were my great-niece and nephew and that they could no longer find homes for them because in every foster home something strange and supernatural and disastrous would happen. They were a secon **d** chance for me."

"They're a second chance for both of us."


	5. Chapter 5: Less than human

**Chapter 5**

Dipper and Mabel were wandering around the fear-amid, finally allowed out of there room after a few days. Well, maybe a few days. Dipper and Mabel had lost all sense of time. It was also unclear if time was still moving forward or not. **T** hey were still unsure how much Bill had changed the world with his new found infinite power. He could have turned the world into one giant triangle, made the galaxy black and yellow, or make gravity disappear. They had no idea and no way of telling what Bill had done to the world. The limited amount of freedom they were given was just being able to walk around the confusing maze that was their new home. The only reason they were allowed to leave their room at all was because Bill found it rather enjoyable to watch the twins get lost in the ever changing maze and then had to ask him for help to get back to their prison. He enjoyed making the twins need his assistance.

As they traveled through the black and rainbow accented hall ways, sometimes having to walk on walls because that's where the gravity was, the twins talked.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Anything I think of, Bill can read my mind and know w **h** at we are going to do."

"Are sure he is unaware of the weapon?"

"Positive."

All of the sudden, Dipp **e** r and Mabel were met face to face with someone that they did not want to meet: Bill's henchmen...well henchmaniacs.

"Well, well, well. It's the Pines twins." Pyronica, **t** he pink fiery she-demon exclaimed, "What are you two doing snooping around?"

"Nothing. Leave us alone."

"I wonder h **o** w much Bill would reward us for bringing him the infamous Pines twins." Teeth sneered.

"Probably more if we bring their corpses."

"Bill does love furniture made out of human flesh."

"I **w** onder what the girl would look like as a throw pillow?"

"If you touch my sister I swear you will all be dead!" Dipper said, stepping betwee **n** Mabel and the 5 members of Bill's gang.

They just laughed.

Pyronica had the pleasure of being the first to attack Dipper. She threw a fireball straight into his chest causing a serious burn across his torso. The impact of the blast knocked Dipper off his feet and thre **w** him several yards away. Mabel instantly rushed to his side to find him unconscious.

"Leave him alone you evil triangle worshipers!"

Mabel summoned her own pink fireball and threw it at the she-demon.

They just laughed at her feeble attempts at magic and then came in for the kill.

...

Human Bill stared at the near l **i** fe less bodies thrown at his feet. He could see Dipper's elbow's bone protruding through his skin. His other arm was only connected to his body by a small sliver of skin around his shoulder. Claw marks going down his chest along with a **l** arge burn that had seared through his shirt which was now in tatters. **L** arge teeth marks on his legs, probably courtesy of Teeth. Mabel was in the same position but instead of an arm barely holding onto her body, it was one of her legs.

"We caught the Pines twins for you!" Pyronica exclaimed proudly.

"We even beat them up a bit for you." Teeth s **a** id this as if he deserved a reward for his efforts.

Bill just stared at the twins. His lips curle **d** into a smile. And then he started laughing. And soon the rest of the henchmaniacs were laughing along with him.

"You guys did a great job beating the living daylights out of these two kids." Bill laughed. "It was about...5 against 2 right? Not really fair."

"Exactly! Those twins never had a chance!"

"And they're little kids." Bill gave his friends a sinister smile.

"Yep! They put up a fight though. But we broke them!"

"I see. You guys did a wonderful job of trying to murder my two helpless kids!"

The henchmen, being dumber than the human race, did not seem to understand what Bill had said. They continues to laugh. Bill laughed too, but not at what they were laughing at.

In the midst of all the laughter, Bill shot Teeth with a blast of lightning.

The laughter stopped.

Tension filled the air.

"It seems all of you did not pay attention to what I had said." Bill said, his Cheshire smile still across his face. "Th **o** se kids are mine. As in I'm their father. Something that you should have been aware of if you paid an ounce of attention."

"They're...your kids?" Keyhole, the most panicked one of the lot, quivered.

"Yep! Meet Dipper and Mabel! Your prince and princess!"

Bill pointed to the near dead twins at his feet.

"I had no idea!" Pyronica exclaimed. "None of us did!"

All of the gang begged for Bill's forgiveness.

Bill just smiled.

"Don't worry." Bill assured them, "I will give you the amount of forgiveness that my friends deserve."

They relaxed a bit.

A few sighs of **r** elief.

Silence.

Then Bill grew a couple more limbs.

Sharp fangs grew from his mouth.

His eyes turned red.

The next few minutes were so confusing and horrifying that only the aftermath could be explained. Pyronica's severed head was plastered on a wall. The rest of her body had been combined with Keyhole's body. One of Teeth's arms was being used as a back scratcher by Bill. Morpheus had gone from being a diamond to two triangles. The room was no longer black but blood red and Bill had taken it upon himself to create a painting of himself on the wall out of the blood of his friends. The room was littered with body parts of demons.

No one was dead. Demons couldn't die, but they were feeling the most excruciating pain they have ever felt in the pitiful **e** xistence.

Bills chest rose and fell rapidly, the adrenalin of violence pumping through his veins. His sadistic smile showed that his once pearly white teeth were now blood covered, sharp fangs. It was hard to tell, just by looking at him, whether or not his was still in his monster form. The amount of blood on him covered his appearance **m** aking it impossible to tell if he was yellow or red.

"Remember this next time you dare think to touch my children!" Bill shouted to the corpses and severed monster body parts. "And when you're done reassembling your body parts, clean up this room! But leave the blood painting. I w **a** nt to keep that here as a reminder of what happens when you toy with Bill Cipher the demon king and his heirs!"

They didn't respond back, for reasons quite clear.

Bill, still laden with blood, bent down to his kids, scooped them in his arms and carried them off to his own quarters which was at the top of the pyramid. Having 6 arms at the moment helped a lot in carrying the two 12 year olds. Bill snapped his fingers, using one of his spare hands, and two twin sized **b** eds appeared in his room. He laid the twins down on them and took a close look at th **e** damage.

Mabel had lost a leg, which was somewhere on the floor and Dipper was missing an arm which was also somewhere on the floor.

Bil **l** just stared at the twins for a moment, letting the image of their mangled bodies fuel his **a** nger. How foolish could those monster be. The twins had been here for a couple of days. They knew magic for crying out loud! How dumb could his so called 'friends' be?

Feeling that the twins would soon die, Bill decided to fix them up. With a simple snap from his fingers, the twins' body parts were put back in there original sockets and all the cuts, bites, burns and bruises disappeared.

Once that was fi **n** ished, Bill summoned himself the strongest liquor he could think of and chugged a pint. While he preferred wine, the drink seared his throat which calmed his anger a bit.

It took almost an hour for the twins to wake up again. Mabel was the first one to come to.

"What...where...is the world supposed to be yellow?"

"Well considering you're in my room, Shooting Star, and I own the own now: yes, the world is supposed to be yellow."

Bill sat himself on the bed next to Mabel, a bit relieved that she woke up. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dipper stir and open his eyes.

"Oh...everything hurts…" Dipper weakly sai **d** as he rubbed his arm.

"Nice to see you among the living, Pine tree."

Dipper, seeing Bill, bolted up.

"Where are we. What happened."

"You lost an arm. Shooting Star lost a leg. You two almost died." Bill tried to remember everything. It was all a bit fuzzy and very red. "Oh and you two aren't allowed downstairs until the blood is out of the carpet and my friends body parts are back in their original places."

"We...we almost died?" Mabel asked. "You saved us?"

"Your friend's body parts are all over the downstairs?" Dipper asked

"You two **d** on't have to worry. They won't be coming near you again." Bill said. "Those fools weren't aware that I was a dad apparently. But they know now. And it will be impossible for them to forget."

"Do we want to know what you did to them?" Dipper asked, feeling h **i** s stomach tighten up.

"Did your uncle ever let you watch 'the millipede human'?"

"No. What's that?" Mabel asked, curious.

"Well if you did, what I did to them is about 10 times worse."

Dipper, who had heard of that movie before, felt like he was about to puke.

"Don't you dare vomit in my room kid." Bill said, reading Dipper's mind and just knowing what a person looks like when they're about to hurl chunks.

"That's disgusting…" Di **p** per said, his mouth dry.

"So was your body when I found it, Pine tree. You were barely recognizable as a human. You looked like roadkill."

"I still don't know what you're talking about…" Mabel chimed in.

"And you never will, Shooting Star. I'd rather you not know about that movie." Bill said. "Well I think we've had enough father-children bonding time for the day."

Bill snapped his fingers and they were all trans **p** orted to Mabel and Dipper's room.

"You two need to get some sleep tonight. Just because you almost died today doesn't mean that we won't train tomorrow. If anything it means that you two need to train harder. Bye!"

With a snap of his fingers, he transported himself out of the room.

The twins stay **e** d silent for a while.

Mabel eventually broke the ee **r** ie silence.

"He saved us."

"We almo **s** t died."

"He could have let us die."

"He just wants power and leverage."

"No...I feel like it was more than that."

"Mabel. Bill is evil. He could save my life a thousan **d** times and I still wouldn't trust him."

"I know I know...but it is so hard to believe that he has some feelings. Just a bit."

"Mabel. I know you want to find some good in him. But there is nothing. He is less th **a** n human. You can't pretend that he is human."

Dipper soon fell asleep. Mabel took a bit longer. He couldn't be that bad. Everyone deserve **d** a second chance...right?


	6. Chapter 6: Birthday

Chapter 6

 **B** ill was still furious for the next few days, or whatever form of time he was using currently. He hadn't set up a system of how time worked in this world so everything was kinda just all over the place. Not unlike his friends body parts all over the fear-amid.

Bill needed the twins to l **i** ke him. While he hated to admit it, he was a bit frightened when he saw their mangled bodies. He didn't love them, he reminded himse **l** f over and over again, they are his pawns. He just needed them for leverage and that's it. He didn't care about them. Even though Shooting Star always made him laugh... And Pine Tree's 'never give up' attitude was something that not a lot of meat sacks had… And how he a **l** ways felt this strong feeling within his chest when he thought about them... No, he reminded himself, you don't care about them. But he needed them to care about him.

What would easily turn the hearts and minds of children?

Oh yeah!

...

Dipper was having a wonderful dream of punching Bill's triangle face **i** n, when he was woken up by Bill (in his human form) dropping onto his bed.

"Rise and shine, Pine Tree!" Bill said, invading Dipper's personal space, "I have a surprise for you and your sister!"

Mabel, hearing the commotion, weakly opened her eyes and stretched.

"Morning Bill." She said yawning as large as a hippo would.

"Morning my sparkly Shooting Star!" Bill said, still on Dipper's bed, "and happy birthday!"

Mabel' **s** eyes shot open.

"It's our birthday today?!" She asked, smiling from ear to ear.

"Yep! You two are officially teenagers! And 365 days closer to death but you'll ignore that because there's cake!"

Bill snapped his fingers and a giant table appeared in the room. It was filled with everything that Mabel loved: chocolate fountains, candy, pizza, cake, cupcak **e** s, pancakes and any other cake you can think of.

"That's awesome!" Mabel shouted.

"Dig in! They do say breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

Mabel quickly dove into the pile of sugar, but Dipper was less than impressed.

"Come on Dipper! It's free food!"

"Yeah Pine Tree! Try to live a little."

"I'm not eating that. It could be made of blood or crushes bones or something."

"Calm down kid. I swear there's no human or animal body parts in the food."

Dipper, no more con **v** inced that what he had been before, did not eat anything. Except when Mabel shoved a piece of cake down his throat.

"Maphel..." Dipper grumbled through the cake in his mouth.

"Come on. It's the best strawberry cake I've ever had!"

Dipper swallowed, fearing that he soon wouldn't be able to breath.

"That's not strawberry cake. That's chocolate." Dipper po **i** nted out.

"No it's strawberry."

"You must have gotten into smi **l** e dip again because that's chocolate."

"Wow. You guys fight over the stupidest things." Bill chimed in. "If you must know, that cake changes flavor depending on who's eating it. It picks their favorite flavor."

"So what does it taste like when you eat it?" Ma **b** el asked.

Bill gave a sadistic smile as he said "human livers."

"That's not a cake flavor." Mabel said.

"Or actual food." Dipper said, once again feeling nauseous.

"It actually tastes pretty good with cream cheese icing." Bill said.

"Cannibal."

"Not to me it's not. That's like me calling you a cannibal for eating Doritos. Besides, it only tastes like human flesh. There's actually zero human in it."

"But you still know what h **u** man livers taste like so you have to have had it at some point."

"Fair point, Pine Tree. Look at you using that brain of yours."

Bill then took a slice of cake and bit off a piece. It tasted like chocolate, but Bill would never tell Dipper that. He liked messing with the kid.

Once Mabel had declared that she had the world's biggest stomach ache ever, Bill decided to hand out presents.

"For Mabel." Bill snapped his fingers.

"My grappling hook! I though **t** I had dropped this."

"You did. I thought you would like it back now. Alone with."

Bill snapped his fingers once more and all of Mabel's scrap books appeared in front of her.

"Soon, you'll be able to conjure anything you want." Bill explained, "But you won't be able to summon anything from the outside world. Might as well remember what the world was like before I gave it a makeover!"

Mabel was already going through the scrapbook containing all of her Halloween memories.

"Thank you, Bill." Mabel said, staring at a picture of herself and her brother in matching cat costumes.

"Now for Pine Tree." Bill turn to **w** ards Dipper, who was lying on his bed reading. "I have a special gift for you…"

Bill snapped his fingers and a severed head appeared into Dipper's lap.

"Ahhh!" Dipper screamed like a little girl who had just seen a spider.

"HAHAHAHA" B **i** ll laughed at his girly squeal, "You should see your face! Oh that will never get old. Don't worry kid. I have something better for you."

Bill snapped his fingers and the head disappeared **l** eaving only Dipper wondering who it belonged too and a blood stain on Dipper's bed sheets.

"Here. This is what I actua **l** ly planned on getting you."

Bill snapped his fingers and something else appeared on Dipper's lap. Something that was small and fuzzy.

"A kitten?" Dipper sa **i** d, picking up the small orange, black and white tabby.

"Not just any kitten. Say the word _Mutatio._ " Bill spoke the last word only in Dipper's mind so that the kitten wouldn't hear.

" _Mutatio._ " Dipper said.

He had barely finished the last syllable when the kitten began to grow and change. One moment it was a cute tabby kitten, the next it looked exactly like grunkle Ford.

"Grunkle Ford?" Dipper asked.

He didn't respond.

"Kid, you have issues." Bill said. " _Feles."_

The copy of Ford morphed b **a** ck into a small kitten and began licking its paws.

"What the heck was that?" Dipper asked, furious.

"When you command it to change, it morphs into whatever you are thinking about at that moment." Bill explained. "It seems you were thinking about Fordsie. I have expected it to turn into me being run through with a spear. I'm glad it's not. It's a rather useful pet. It can change into any person, place or thing. Like weapons or people. Of course, it can't replicate speak besides cat talk. But you have to admit, its really cool."

"Why don't I get a transforming kitten?" Mabel whined.

Bill rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers.

"There. Now your pig has those abilities."

"Sweet! Waddles, _Mutatio_!"

Waddles, who was sleeping in his bed, instantly woke up and transfor **m** ed into what appeared to be a combination of a unicorn, a kitten and cotton candy.

"Wow! That's awesome! Thank you!"

" _Porcus._ " Bill said and waddles turned back into a pig. "You're welcome, Shooting Star."

"Dipper. Aren't you going to say thank you?" Mabel said.

Dipper just stared at Bill for a brief moment.

"Thanks." Dipper swallowed his pride long enough to say the word.

"No problem Pine Tree." Bill said, pleased that he finally got something out of Dipper, "Now you two enjoy...And if you ever need anything, just call my name: William."

"William?" Mabel asked. "Why can't we just use Bill to call you?"

"You realize that you two say Bill almost every minute. If I showed up every time you two said Bill I would never get a moment alone. Just say Will **i** am. Nobody ever calls me that. Just so I know when you guys need me."

"Ok." Mabel said.

Dipper just nodded, preoccupied with the kitten that using his hair as a scratching post.

"See you two later!"

Bill snapped his fingers and vanished from the room.

"That was sweet of him." Mabel said, taking the kitten off of Dipper' **s** head.

"He gave us weapons."

"He gave me my scrapbooks and gave you a kitten." Mabel said. "You've always wanted a kitten. And this one's magical. You're two favorite things. Bill must care a little bit about you since he knows that about you."

"The reason Bill knows everything about us is because he wants to locate our greatest weaknesses. It's not because he cares about us."

"Why is it so hard to understand that he has feelings?"

"Mabel! Are you forgetting that we are prisoners here? That he threatened our grunkles' lives? That he literally turned all of our friends into tapestries?"

"I know he's done some awful things Dipper. But I know that somewhere in him is a heart. Maybe if we just try to become frie **n** ds with him."

"Mabel. I don't want anything to d **o** with that monster!" Dipper exclaimed. "I ha **t** e him."

"We both know that's not true. Part of you likes the idea of an all-powerful being being your dad. In your heart, I know that you want him to love you."

"Well...of course." Dipper was at a loss for words. "Of course I want him to actually care a **b** out us...but nothing that he c **a** n do will prove it to me...you might be easily convinced that he cares, but I'm not easily swayed."

"So do you think there's hope for him?"

"No. I don't think there is anything in the worl **d** that can fix him."


	7. Chapter 7: Claire

Chapter 7

It had been a few weeks before any henchmaniac had the courage to talk to Bill about the questions that everybody had. **I** t took a bit more than 3 days before everyone's forms had healed themselves. But that was only the physical wounds. Their mental damage was far more severe. That's what made Bill so powerful: he goes into your mind. Once in, he tears you in from the inside. Makes you panic at every little bump in the night. Sends your hear **t** racing at just the mentioning of his name. That's what they truly feared about Bill.

But that's also why they worshipped him.

After the few weeks, the group of monsters carefully approached Bill's throne of human agony. It **w** as strange to see him in his human form. For the longest time, Bill hated his human form: prone to weakness, he called it. But more recently, he had favored his flesh and blood self over his triangle form. No one understood why. He appeared to be asleep. His legs were hanging over the side and the crown that he had made for himself when he declared himself ruler of the universe was positioned to cover his eyes. He was probably in a h **a** ngover.

"I know why you guys are here." Bill said, his lips curled into a sinister smile.

"Um sorry boss." Keyhole, the most paranoid of the bunch, "We didn't mean to wake you."

"I wasn't asleep, you imbecile." Bill said, not moving from his position. "I was thinking, something that you don't seem to understand. So you came to ask me why all of the sudden I confess to have bedded a human?"

"Well...yeah." Pyronica admitted.

"Well, gather round kid **s**. Time for story time." Bill s **a** id, teasingly. "Once upon a time...man just saying that phrase gives me a bad taste in my mouth."

…

Claire and Bill were walking through the woods as they always did.

"Your uncle bothering you again?" Bill said, snapping his fingers to make a tissue appear from nowhere and handing it to Claire.

"Thanks." Claire said, completely unfazed by his magic at this point. "Yeah. He's grown distant. I don't know what's up with him. He's never gone this long without talking to me. He's just so focused on whatever he's building in the base **m** ent."

"Who needs him anyways? Cheer up, Butterfly." Bill said, snapping his fingers again. "You have me."

Suddenly, the brown leaves on the trees started to fall at a rapid pace. However, before hitting the ground, they transformed into thousands of butterflies, all the colors of autumn leaves.

Claire just stared at the flying beauties. B **i** ll, who was in complete control of the creatures, made a few settle on the palms of Claire's hands. A few fluttered by her face. A couple landed in her hair and on the top of her head. A single one landed on her nose.

Claire laughed.

"I love butterflie **s**." Claire stated the well-known fact. "They are so pretty."

Bill pretended to sneeze and the butterflies flew off of Claire and gracefully flew away.

"Thanks Bill. You always know how to cheer me up."

"No problem, Butterfly."

…

"So Ford's trapped in a portal, you say?" Bill ques **t** ioned Claire.

"Yes…" Claire said sadly. "I don't know where he is. But what I do know is that he's in another dimension. He could be dead."

"He's tough. I'm sure he's alive." Bill **a** ctually knew for a fact that old sixer was alive.

"California is so different from Gravity Falls." Claire said, staring out the window of her room in the foster home. "It's almost impossible to go outside here. It's so...urban."

"Remind me again why you're in California?"

"My uncle Stan can't take care of me. Simple as that. And a family took me in here." Claire said. "I **k** now why he couldn't keep me...but it still hurts. Part of me will always believe that he didn't care enough about me. Both of my uncles in fact."

"Family is complicated." Bill said, thinking of his sister, Poppy, and how things ended with them. "They always end up stabbing you in the back."

"I just wish...there wer **e** some butterflies in the city." Claire said.

…

High school was tough considering Claire moved to a new one every few months. No foster care home would keep her for too long because strange things always happened around her. She mostly spent her time on the library computers. She was an excellent programmer.

She would spend weeks focused on creating software for online games and selling them to websites. With a bit of luck, she would be able **t** o afford going to a good technical school.

"You could always ask for my help, you know." Bill said late one night as he watched Claire work on piles of chemistry worksheets.

"It doesn't mean anything if you do it for me, Bill." Claire said, a huge yawn stopping her mid-sentence. "Everything I want, I want to earn."

"You know I would do anything for y **o** u, Claire." Bill said, bending down to kiss her cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too, Bill."

…

"College huh?" Bill said, watching her pack.

"Yep! I got accepted to a grea **t** technical college and they gave me a huge scholarship. I will still have to work a job somewhere, but at least I won't be deep in debt as soon as I graduate. I'm so excited! Florida sounds fun!"

"And I will be there every step of the way."

"I know."

The two kissed.

…

Claire woke up in her apartment in Pi **e** dmont California. She had just started her career as a software creator at Google. Bill was beside her, having moved in with her the moment she bought the **a** partment.

"Morning, darling." She said, rubbing Bill's arm.

"Morning, my Butterfly."

The two kissed.

"I got to go, Bill." Claire said, pulling away from Bill's **h** ungry lips. "I can't be late again."

"I don't understand why you want to work when I can make you my princess. I could give you anything you ever wanted."

"I've told you before. I want to do things by myself. I don't need your voodoo magic."

…

"Pregnant?" Bill asked, a smile creeping onto his lips.

"Yep." Claire said, rubbing her stomac **h**. "Are you happy?"

"Elated."

…

"So you fell in love with a human?" Keyhole asked, almost laughing at the impossible situation.

"Hardly. It was more of a game really." Bill said. "A game I had to win. You know it's impossible for Dream Demons to feel love for anything. We just desire things. I th **i** nk that was very clear."

"But she see **m** ed to love you." Pyronica said, feeling a bit sorry for the girl.

"Of course she did!" Bill said, that wicked smile s **t** ill across his face. "What human could resist such devotion? Or me for that matter? I saw what a beauty she w **o** uld become using my ability to see the future and I wanted that. And when I want something I always get it."

"What...what happened to her?"

"Died in childbirth with my twins." Bill said, uncaringly. "As I knew she would. Whenever a demon, any type of demon, mates with a human: it doesn't turn out well. Claire knew this info when she decided that she wanted **k** ids with me."

"She knew? She wanted your kids?"

"Yeah the woman was foolish enough to believe that she was strong enough to have demon twins." Bill said, chuckling at her stupidity. "Foolish mortal female. Pride was her downfall."

"So why, all of the sudden, do you want your kids?" Keyhole asked.

"Leverage." Bill said, simply.

"Against who? All the town people are statues now."

"Ford is still very much alive. I need the tw **i** ns in order to control him." Bill said simply. "There is also their powers. The twins have magic. Which reminds me. I need to go up there and teach the two of them a few more magic skills."

Bill snapped his fingers and fe **l** t his body disappear from his throne room and up to twin's room. On the brief trip, Bill thought about the conversation that went down. He didn't tel **l** his groupies, but he felt...something inside of him when he remembered Claire. He was unsure of what he felt. But it wasn't pleasant. It made his chest hurt and his throat seem to choke. He didn't understand why.


	8. Chapter 8: Stop

Chapter 8

"Morning kids!" Bill came into the twins' room in a puff of smoke. "Time to learn how to decapitate something without killing it!"

"Good morning, Bill." Mabel said, her usual smile on her face.

"Morning Mabel." Dipper said, half asleep with his eyes covered by his kitten that decided to sleep on his face.

"Morning dipstick."

"Could you please stop making up nicknames for my nickname?" Dipper mumbled. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Kid," Bill said, "The sky is currently the center of gravity. Nothing makes sense right now. And that's how I like it! Now get up, Pine tree."

Dipper had thought that he would have **b** een used to being randomly woken up by Bill at this point, but he was wrong.

"Come on Pine Tree. I'm teaching you something useful today." Bill said.

Dipper still didn't get up.

"Man, you've only been a teenager for a couple of weeks. I was hoping the teen aged angst wo **u** ld wait a little bit before setting in." Bill said, laughing a bit at Dipper's attempt of defiance. "I know what will get you up: today's lesson involves torturing me."

Dipper was more than happy to get out of bed once hearing that.

"Torturing you?" Dipper asked, a bi **t** excited.

"Torturing you?" Mabel asked, a bit concerned.

"Yep." Bill said, running his hands through his blond and black hair. "Don't worry. Most likely it won't hurt me a bit. But that is the goal today."

"I don't understand." Mabel said, her words laced with worry as she looked at Dipper's all too happy face. "Why would you want us to hurt you?"

"Because after that **i** ncident when my friends tried to turn you two into horror movie props, you two need to learn how to fight off demons." Bill said. "And as much as I want to you to use my friends as target practice, it will be much more effective if you use me. Might give Dipper some encouragement."

"Why do you have to be tortured though?" Mabel asked.

"Because if you can somehow manage to hurt me a little bit, you will disassemble any other demon's molecules." Bill said simply, as if the answer was obvious. "Now the spell is simple enough. I can't tell you it of course because i **f** I saw it I will no longer exist. So here."

Bill summoned a pen and a piece of paper and wrote down some latin gibberish. He then handed the piece of paper to Dipper.

" _Ad infernum daemonium?_ " Dipper butc **h** ered the Latin making the spell worthless.

"That's only part of the spell." Bill said, shaking his head. "But seriously kid, pronounce it write or the demon will just be on the floor rolling in laughter and not squirming in pain. Now, along with the spell you have snap your fingers."

"Just snap your fingers? That's it?" Dipper asked. "No sheep's blood or something like that?"

"Hey. Nothing is more powerful than a good finger snap." Bill defended, slightly amused. "Works wonders on g **e** tting girls. Idiocy aside, Dipper, it's time to practice."

Dipper went first. Dipper faced his father ready to cause him whatever pain he could manage.

" _Ad infernum daemonium_." Dipper spoke the latin a little more accurate than before and then snapped his fingers.

"Do you feel anything?" Mabel asked.

"THE HORROR!" Bill screamed as he squirmed in pain on the floor. "MAKE IT STOP!"

"Dipper! What did you do?!" Mabel screamed at her brother.

"PINE TREE! STOP! PLEASE!"

"I don't know!" Dipper shouted over Bill's screaming, which was nearly impossible to do. "I suck at magic!"

Bill then stopped screaming. His human body was motionless. Then his signature chesire cat smile appeared on his face. Then he began to laugh uncontrollably and roll around on the floor.

"Hahahahahaha!" Bill laughed, "You two actually thought you hurt me! Hahaha! As if Dipper could ever hurt me! The boy can barely walk 10 feet without tripping over himself!"

"So you were faking it?" Mabel asked, a bit relieved.

"Even if the spell did work," Dipper said to Bill, his voice dark and furious. "You would probably enjoy the pain, you sick and twisted sadist."

"Dipper!" Mabel shouted at her brother's suggestion.

"You're not wrong there, Pine Tree." Bill said, rolling over to his side and perching himself one on elbow. "I do enjoy pain: whether it's inflicted on someone or on myself. It makes me feel alive. Any sort of feeling makes me feel alive."

"So is us practicing on you for our benefit or for yours?" Dipper asked, disgusted.

"Considering I have zero faith that you two can do this spell," Bill said bluntly, "I would say that it's for your benefit and none of my own. Now, Mabel, it's your turn. In order for the spell to work, you have to be staring at your target: it takes full concentration. Let's see if you can at least tickle me with this death spell. "

It went on for hours. Bill knew that it was a fool's errand to try to get them to hurt him, but he had to try. As much as he hated to admit it, he felt...alive around his kids. Maybe it was love. Bill never knew the feeling so it was hard to pinpoint when he actually admired something. Usually, when Bill's henchmen said that he 'loved' a particular item, he would destroy it to show that he could live without it. But he couldn't destroy Mabel and Dipper...no Shooting Star and Pine Tree. Maybe because he didn't care enough for them or he cared too much for them so he coul **d** never actually harm them.

He hoped that it wasn't the second option.

Life was better lived alone, in Bill's opini **o** n.

He didn't need anyone. He didn't need minions. He didn't need the human race. He didn't need Poppy.

No, he told himself, don't you dare start thinking about her. If you start thinking about her then you'll fear...what's that word again…guilt.

She's dead. She's worse than dead. She's erased from existence. She never existed.

You're better off without her.

Sudden, Bill f **e** lt pain in his chest. Not emotional pain, no. Like someone taking a dagger and stabbing him in the heart: that type of feeling. It was gone almost instantly, but the pain had happened.

He looked down onto his chest to find his yellow suit stained with red right where his heart should have been. The blood soon vanished but everyone knew that it had been there.

That could only mean...

"Bill?" Mabel asked. Her voice filled with fear, "Are you alright?"

"I'm better than alright!" Bill said, overjoyed. "Shooting Star! You hurt me! It felt like a stab to the heart! Wonderful! A few more tries at it and you'll…"

"Bill." Mabel said softly.

"Yes, Shooting Star?"

"I...I didn't do the spell…" Mabel admitted.

"What?"

"The spell…" Mabel said, "I wasn't the one who cast it…"

Bill's smile faded as he turned his head to the one who did perform the spell: Dipper.

Dipper looked as surprised as Bill felt.

"You...you actually performed a spell right?" Bill **s** aid. "That's a first."

"Don't remind me..." Dipper turned his head away but Bill kept staring at him in disbelief.

Bill slowly, but surely, began to smile. It wasn't a creepy or sadistic smile. More like the smile a parent would get when their kid rode a bike for the first time. Bill then walked over to Dipper, took off that ridiculous pine tree hat and ruffled his hair.

"Good job, Pine Tree." Bill said, "You might have some talent in this after all. You made me bleed: takes a lot of concentration and power to make the pain show on the outside."

"Really? You, proud of me?" Dipper said, his voice laden with sarcasm.

"I would **n'** t say proud." Bill tried to think of a way to get out of this with a smug look, but was unsuccessful, "actually...yeah I would say proud."

Dipper looked up at him. Bill saw something that he had never seen before: Dipper smiling a **t** him.

"Thanks." Dipper said, proud of himself.

"Of course that also means you really wanted to see me as a bloody corpse." Bill said, walking away before things got too awkward. "Anger fuels this spell. Probably why Shooting Star's having a hard time with it. Ok, Pine Tree, I want you to go again. Try to make me bleed again."

Dipper was once again successful. Bill then traded him off with Mabel to give her more practice.

"Great job Pine Tree! I could feel my back break in half on that one!"

"Shooting Star, all you did was tickle me. Improvement I guess."

"That one felt like being hit by a bolt of lightning! I feel like my hair is standing up straight now!"

"That felt like someone pinched me, Shooting star."

"That one felt like a bomb just dropped on me!"

And so it went. Dipper was excelling at the spell and Mabel was struggling. Bill, thought he was now covered in bruises and bur **n** ed in multiple places, was happier than he had ever been.

"Ok, Pine Tree, last time then you two need to go to bed, alright?" Bill smiled.

"Ok. _Ad infernum daemonium."_ Dipper snapped his fingers.

Bill felt like he was in Hell. It was awful. He couldn't even pretend to enjoy it. His body felt like it was on fire, being burned with acid, bullets being fired into it and being in the electric chair all at the same time. He couldn't breath, like he was being buried alive or being dr **o** wned. It wasn't just physical pain either. He heard screaming. He recognized the screaming too: it was the screams he heard when he set his **o** ld universe ablaze. He heard more than just screaming: he heard voices. Poppy's voice, crying out for him to stop. Claire's voice begging him to come back. Mabel a **n** d Dipper's cries of fear and desperation.

It was more than he could bare.

"Stop." Was all Bill could mutt **e** r as he laid on the floor in agony.

"Dipper, stop." Mabel said.

But Dipper didn't stop. His eyes focused on Bill. He didn't care if Bill was in pain: he was finally good at magic and it evolved a way to physically break Bill. He didn't care that Bill was proud of him or that he somewhat care.

The only thing that stopped the pain that Dipper was inflicting was when he had to blink and broke concentration.

Bill stopped shaking. He rolled over onto his stomach. He tried to use his arms to hoist himself up but they gave way and he was right back on the floor. His breathing was unsteady. He was covered in blood. He kept coughing up blood.

"What did you do, Dipper?" Mabel asked, rushing over to Bill and putting her hand on his back.

"I just did the spell." Dipper responded, only realizing now **w** hat he had done. "I don't...I don't know what came over me...I'm sorry."

It took Bill almost thirty minutes to heal: usually it only took a few seconds at most.

"Well, I can tell you one thing…" Bill smiled a bit, finally having enough strength to sit up and talk. "No demon stands a chance against you, Pine Tree."

"Bill. I'm sorry. I didn't think that..."

"That it would hurt more than Hell?" Bill finished his sentence. "Don't worry about it, kid. Just, be careful. You don't want to become an insane sadist like me."

"I didn't mean to…"

"We all know you did, Pine Tree." Bill said. "And **i** t's a good thing you did. No matter what, Pine Tree. Never listen to a demon's pleas. They will just turn your pity against you and you'll end up dead. Promise me that you will never stop that spell if you're using it on a demon."

"I promise."

"And...and promise...promise…" Bill struggled with the words, "never to do...that to me again. You don't need to practice it any more. You've got it perfect. Don't do that spell on me."

Dipper **l** ooked at him, confused a bit, wondering just how bad he hurt him.

"Promise me, Pine Tree."

"I promise."

"Good." Bill's dark voice turned playful. "Now, you two, time for bed. I'm exhausted and I'm an immortal being who doesn't need sleep. Off to bed."

Dipper and Mabel went to s **l** eep in their own beds. Bill, too exhausted to move at all, just let himself fall on the floor. He fell asleep for the first time in years. But he felt beaten for the first time in his existence.


	9. Chapter 9: 24 hours

**Disclaimer: If I owned Gravity Falls, there would be an amusement park in Oregon that resembles the town to a T.**

 **Author's Note: I hate writing author's notes. Some of you have been asking about my life and other things that usually are answered in author's notes. I don't want to make a habit of having filler paragraphs before and after my story's chapters so an author's note is rare coming from me. Anything there is to know about me and that I am willing to share is in my bio. I am here to write stories: nothing else.**

 **I'm not going to ask you to review or favorite or follow this story. Ever. As much as I enjoy the emails I get on my phone whenever one of those things happens, I would like every review or fav to be because you liked the story and not because I begged you.**

 **On a more positive note, I would like to take the time to thank all of you for supporting this story. I will give you a little insight on what will be happening for the next chapters as a reward for your support. This will be the only hints you will be getting for the rest of the story so pay attention.**

 **There will be a total of 25 chapters. All are written out and well planned. Of course, I update whenever I feel like it. I will tell you now: Chapter 10 is when everything will go down.**

 **Look for the code hidden throughout the story. Everything will be revealed if you just look closely.**

 **As encouragement for my little game, I will not be publishing chapter 10 until someone deciphers the message and PM's me the answer. If you are a guest and figure it out, just put your answer in a review.**

 **One last hint. Chapter 9 has a different code than the rest.**

 **Good luck.**

 **Chapter 9**

Ford was confused why random junk kept appearing in their dungeon. First a bottle cap showed up a few weeks (well maybe weeks: time seemed to be going at its own pace now) after their surrender. Then a light bulb showed up a few days after that. Then there were wires. Most of it looked like junk.

It wasn't until they received a bobby-pin arrived when they got what was happening.

"I think they want us to escape." Stan said, moving the bobby-pin with his feet, his hands chained to the wall.

"Of course they want us to escape." Ford replied, his voice filled with despair. "But why would they send us all of this junk?"

"Hey. You're the smart one." Stan grumbled, his words barely audible because he was picking the lock with the bobby-pin in his mouth. "Figure something out."

Bottle cap. Light bulb. Wires. What was their plan?

As if a lightbulb went off in his head, Ford knew exactly what the twins were planning.

"Hurry up and unlock me." Ford said. "I know what we need to do."

…

With the last piece of the now disassembled memory gun with Stan and Ford, Dipper and Mabel began to realize just how soon the day would come when they would fight back. They would have to wait until Bill was distracted long enough to sneak up on him. But all they could do was wait a bit. Mabel and Dipper both agreed that they needed to learn more magic before they went through with their plan: they needed everything they could get.

At this point, Mabel and Dipper had just learned to get up as soon as Bill magicked himself into their room.

The lessons were becoming more and more enjoyable. Mabel excelled at anything with transformation: disappearing, making things appear out of thin air, changing the color and style of her clothes and anything like that. Dipper learned, to his horror and excitement, that he did excellent at reading minds, trickery and weapons. If the magic was just for amusement, Mabel was your girl. If it involved hurting someone, Dipper was the one that could handle it.

"Morning kids." Bill said, popping into their room in a puff of smoke.

"Morning Bill." Mabel said, her eyes glued to the TV screen.

"Mornin'." Dipper responded.

"What are you guys doing? Usually you're asleep right now?" Bill said, putting his arms

"We're watching the 24 marathon of Ghost Harassers." Dipper said, "I missed it last time because of the whole Northwest mystery thing. And I am not going to miss it again."

"Weird." Bill said taking and eating a Dorito from the pile of snacks that were around the twins. "How on earth did you get television reception anyways?"

"I fixed the TV station from inside our room." Mabel said. "Now we have every channel."

"Mabel is quite the hacker when she wants to be." Dipper said, taking another handful of chips.

" _Ahh the ghost has hold of my pant! What am I to do?"_ The actor on the screen said, his acting cringe worthy.

Mabel and Dipper laughed at the terribleness of the show.

"Hahaha!" Bill laughed. "Wow this is terrible. And you're going to watch 24 hours of this?"

"We've already watched 3 hours of this." Mabel said, still giggling. "It gets better… at least that's what Dipper says."

"They get a new cast around hour 16 of the marathon." Dipper explained. "That's when season 3 starts. It's so much better."

"Yeah the last time he watched the season three finale, he cried for like 3 hours." Mabel said.

"I did not!"

"Pine Tree," Bill said, laughing a bit. "I can read your mind. We all know that you have girl emotions."

" _Just leave me to die! You must save yourselves from the giant s'more monster!"_

The three burst into laughter once more.

"Well, I was planning on teaching you how to control dead body's…" Bill said. "But it seems I won't be able to pry you two away from this screen for the next 21 hours. Or how ever time is currently running. I'll just come back when the marathon is done and when you two have caught up on sleep."

"Why don't you watch with us?" Mabel asked. "What do you **s** ay?"

"Mabel…" Dipper said, wondering what was going on in her mind to invite Bill to watch.

"Well it seems that it would make you happy, which I don't really want to do." Bill said, pretending to be in deep thought with his fingers stroking his face. "But it also would make Pine Tree miserable which I would love to do. Count me in!"

…

" _ **G**_ _oodbye cruel world! I die!"_ The man said on screen.

It was hour 7 on the marathon and Bill, Mabel and Dipper all laughed at the 'should-be-emotional' death scene.

"I can't believe someone got paid to write that line." Dipper said, feeling as if his ribs would crack from laughter.

"I can't believe these actors got paid a cent." Bill said. "They should be paying the directors to be in this movie and not the other way around."

"I think they just hired them for their pretty faces."

At that very moment, the hot male lead got his face torn off by a murderous ghost.

"Well there goes that reasoning." Mabel said, cracking up at the irony.

…

" _I can't live without you!"_

" _But I can't live without you!"_

Hour 15: Bill was really getting into it. No matter how terrible it was, he couldn't stop laughing.

"How long have they been saying I love you?" Dipper asked, massaging his temples to try to get rid of the headache that was starting to ensue.

"Well let's just say that we were on hour 13 when we started the whole 'I love you' thing." Bill said, taking a large gulp of alcohol from a cup he had made appear out of nowhere. "And we're on hour 15 of this train wreck."

"Come on!" Mabel said. "It's so romantic!"

After a few more 'I love you's, it seemed that a ghost got fed up with it too and decided **t** o kill off the girl.

" _No!"_ the male side character screamed.

"No!" Mabel said, tears in her eyes.

"Yes!" Dipper and Bill exclaimed in delight.

…

"Final episode guys." Bill said, on the edge of his seat. "Come on, wake up you two."

"Five more minutes…" Mabel grumbled into the armrest of the couch.

"Just wake me up when it gets emotional…" Dipper responded, his head in a similar position as Mabel's.

"Come on." Bill said.

They kept their eyes closed.

"Fine. We'll do this the hard way."

Bill snapped his fingers and sent a small bolt of electricity through the twin to wake them up. It worked. The twins bolted up, wide awake.

"Good. Now you have to stay awake for one more hours." Bill said. "I've never seen this before and I don't want to miss it because I have to wake you two up every few seconds."

…

Dipper was right. The season finale was beautifully done and so emotional. Bill was still in tears as the credits rolled.

"Wow that was amazing." Bill said, wiping his eyes and trying to regain some dignity. "You were right, Pine Tree, that ending was something else. Pine Tree?"

Bill looked over to his left to find Dipper fast asleep, his head resting on Bill's arms. To his right, he saw that Mabel was fast asleep on his arm as well.

"I guess you two couldn't make it through the full 24 hours." Bill said, moving his arms one at a time and placing his kids' heads on his lap. "Well at least you two didn't see me cry. Can't let you two see that I have some emotions in me."

 **B** ill was about to leave but he decided against it. He just wrapped one arm around each twin and nestled himself into the couch. He let his human form take over and quickly fell asleep next to his son and daughter.


	10. Chapter 10: What's your name?

Chapter 10

 **Author's Note: Congratulations to Corey (Guest) for being the first to crack the chapter 9 code. And a special congratulations to CrimsonCow for being able to have the tolerance to close read every chapter to find the coded message. CrimsonCow is our official winner of the deciphering challenge. This chapter is dedicated to both of you.**

 **I will have coded messages in each chapter from here on out. I ask that you only put your answer in PM's. I would like for everyone to have the chance to work out the codes. What's Gravity Fall's without ciphers?**

 **I will warn you, the codes from here on out are going to be trickier than the last ones. But if you want those chapters published, you have to crack them.**

 **I wish you luck on my sick and twisted game.**

Truth be told, Bill hadn't been worried about anything lately. He saw no reason too.

His mind was focused more on Shooting Star and Pine Tree.

He hated to admit it, but he was rather found of the two trouble makers. And since he was able to read minds, he could tell that they liked him too. Stockholm syndrome works wonders.

Dipper and Mabel were worried. They feared that their grunkles wouldn't understand the seemingly random junk they had sent. Or that Bill would figure out there plan. Or that their powers would fail the **m**. Their plan was risky but they didn't have much of a choice.

"Dipper...I'm worried."

"I know. So am I."

"What if..."

"We can't worry about it now. Deep breaths."

"Should we even go through with this?"

"We have to. We have to save the world, remember."

"But Bill..."

"It will be better for all of us if Bill wasn't around."

"I know. I know...Ok. Ok. I'm ready."

The twins joined hands and together transported themse **l** ves into the dungeon where there grunkles were kept.

"Kids?" The two Stans asked, their voices filled with dying hope.

"Stan! Ford!"

For a moment, they for **g** ot about the plan and the impending doom. The four of them just hugged it out.

"We've been so worried about you two." Stan said.

"We were worried about you!" Mabel said, having never been happier than at that moment.

The bizarre family took a few moments to just enjoy each other's company.

"As much as I enjoy this," Ford spoke up. "We have a dream demon to destroy."

"Yeah." Dipper said, untangling himself from the 3 sets of arms. "We don't have much time. Bill will notice we're down here."

"Yeah that triangle guy won't leave us alone for long."

"So what's the plan?" Stan a **s** ked. "Please tell me it involves me punching that one-eyed creep in the face."

"Well...not exactly." Dipper said. "Did you find all the pieces we sent you?"

"Yes." Ford said pulling out the newly assembled memory gun.

"Ok good." Dipper said. "Now grab Mabel's hand. Mabel, you know where to take us."

…

Bill was sitting in the throne room. In his mind, he was just planning on letting Mabel and Dipper to sleep for the entire day. The stupid meat sacks were so tired after the marathon yesterday that he knew that he wouldn't be getting anything out of them for a couple days.

That was why he was even more shocked when the two of them appeared in his throne room. He did not even notice that there was two other presences in his throne room.

"What are you two doing up?" Bill said, foolishly unworried. "I thought you two would be sleeping for the next week or so."

"Dipper. Now." Mabel whispered.

Bill didn't unde **r** stand what was happening until he felt the searing pain from the demon torturing spell he had taught Dipper.

" _Ad infernum daemonium!"_ Dipper shouted while staring at Bill.

Unfortunately for the Pines twins but fortunately for Bill, the henchmaniacs heard Bill's scream and were quickly surrounding the Pines.

"We've got the henchmen." Mabel said, sending a couple fireballs at the inter-galactic nightmares.

"Go finish off Bill!." Ford yelled as he blasted keyhole with his laser gun.

"Put an end to that 3 sided creep, Dipper." Stan said as he punched in Pyronica's pink face.

Dipper ran over to Bill, who was now on the floor, violently shaking in agony. Dipper was sure to never take his eyes off of Bill, no matter how gruesome his body became.

"Make it stop!" Bill screamed, the agony searing through his body like fire. "Pine Tree! You Promised!"

Dipper wanted to look away and break contact with him. He wanted to make the pain stop. He hated to admit it...but he...he loved Bill. In so **m** e weird messed up way, Dipper cared about him. No matter what he had done to him, Bill was still his dad. After getting to know him: Dipper couldn't hate him. He had once heard the phrase "you could learn to love anyone after hearing their story'. After learning Bill's story, was there any wonder why he acted the way he did? Was it even his fault that he lived an endless life of nothing until he got a taste of what it was like to be real and be punished for it?

But then Dipper looked around. He saw Stan and Ford, dying from Bill's henchmen's attacks. Punches did nothing against magical beings. He saw his sister struggling to stay on her feet while the demons attached her. Pyronica was showing no mercy to Mabel, her flaming fists punching every inch of her.

"Pyronica! Stop hurting Mabel." Bill cried, blood covering every part of his body, still writhing in pain even though Dipper had broken contact. "Stop now before I torture you myself!"

Pyronica did not hear or did not care wha **t** Bill had to say because she continued to torture Mabel.

Bill tried to stand up, his mind focused on protecting his daughter who had betrayed him.

" _Ad infernum daemonium!_ " Dipper snapped his fingers, starting the torture spell again.

Bill fell to the floor, the pain returning tenfold.

"Mason!" Bill said, his breath frantic. "Please…"

"You...you said my actual name." Dipper said, surprised and saddened at this, but still continuing the spell. "Not Pine Tree or even Dipper."

"Mason...please…" Bill said, losing consciousness. "Please...stop."

Dipper hesitantly walked closer to Bill, never taking his eyes off of him. Once his was right in front of him, Dipper blinked his eyes, ending the spell.

Bill was on his knees, seeming to cower in f **r** ont of Dipper. Dipper had never seen anyone look so helpless.

" _Alliges duplicia_." Dipper spoke as he snapped his fingers. Long, metal chains appeared out of nowhere and wrapped t **h** emselves around Bill making his arms and legs useless.

Dipper then reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the memory gun. With a heavy heart, Dipper dialed in the words: Bill Cipher.

"What? What are you doing?" Bill asked, still a little da **z** ed. "Gun's don't work on me, Mason. You know that."

Dipper didn't respond.

"Wait." Bill said, taking a closer look at the object in Dipper's **h** and. "Wait...no...no-no-no. Don't you dare!"

Dipper raised the gun. Bill's eyes grew wide, both being visibly because his hair was plastered against his scalp from blood and his eye patch lost in the fight. Bill looked like a deer in the head lights.

"No! Don't! Please!" Bill pleaded. "I'll give you anything! Riches! Knowledge! Your own galaxy! Your family! Just don't erase my mind!"

Dipper took a breat **h**. His arm was shaking.

"I'll give you anything!" Bill begged. "I'll do anything! Give you your freedom! Never bother you again! Return the world back to normal! Anything!"

Dipper turned away, unable to look at Bill's terrified face. Unable to morally see the pain that he was inflicting.

"Please! You'll be destroying the most powerful mind in existence!" Bill reasoned, desperation in his voice. "Please don't! Please...I beg you. Don't destroy my mind, Mason. You'll be destroying me if you do that! My mind is all I have...please…"

Dipper dared himself to look up. It pained him to see that Bill was in tears.

"I'm sorry." Dipper said, looking into Bill eyes, tear drops falling from his own eyes. "Dad."

Dipper looked away as he pulled the trigger. There was a flash of light.

Then everything got weird.

The giant X in the sky began sucking up everything weird from the uni **v** erse. Anything Bill had brought with him or had changed to fill his twisted desires was now **v** anishing without a trace. All of the monsters were dragged back into their own dimension. Wendy, Pacifica, Robbie, Gideon and McGucket transformed from tapestries back into humans. The fear-amid that the Pines twins had called home for the past few weeks disappeared around them.

When the weirdness stopped, Dipper found himself in a birch tree forest. Bill's seemingly lifeless body was under the shade of one of the trees. The red blood on his outfit faded, but instead of retur **n** ing to the yellow color, it became white.

"Dipper!" Mable said, running up to him, her voice cracking.

"Mabel...I'm sorry…" Dipper said, hugging his sister.

"I know...but you had no choice…"

"Mabel! Dipper!" Stan said, running to them.

"You did it Dipper!" Ford said, smiling from ear to ear. "You defeated Bill! Everything is normal now. I am so proud of you."

The four of them looked over at the seemingly lifeless body only a few feet away.

Dipper and Mabel weren't smiling like there uncles.

"What is it?" Ford asked. "What's wrong?"

"I just...I just destroyed my father…" Dipper said.

Mabel, one step ahead of Dipper, went over to Bill's body.

"He's breathing." Mabel said. "He's still alive."

Mabel knelt down at Bill's side and touched his hand. At this contact, Bill opened his eyes. His eyes were drastically different. They were no longer gold but a light blue. His pupils were no longer slits. His eyes looked...human. The black streaks in his hair were gone and his hair no longer floated around magically. He looked normal.

"It's so great to know you're ok." Mabel said, smiling to know t **h** at he was still alive.

"We...we thought you were gone." Dipper said kneeling on the other side of Mabel.

"You had us so worried."

Mabel hugged Bill, wrapping her arms around his neck. Bill looked shocked at the contact. He gently grabbed her wrists and pulled her off of him.

"Hey there, kiddo." Bill said, confused, but a simple smile on his face. "What's your name?"


	11. Chapter 11: Will

Chapter 11

"Hello, Mr…" The manager for a restaurant in Gravity Malls said as she looked through the résumé in front of her.

"Cipher." The attractive blonde man said, "William Cipher."

"Well, Mr. Cipher." The woman continued, "I'm Ms. Nancy Goldstein. As you probably have figured out, I run this restaurant."

"Well I would hope so." Will said, smiling a bit. "I wouldn't really want some random woman looking through all of my personal things."

Nancy laughed. She didn't know why, but Will put her at ease. It must have been his calming blue eyes: eyes the color of the ocean on a peaceful summer's day. His posture was perfect, but he was relaxed, as if he had been through hundreds of interviews before and had gotten the job each time.

"Well, your résumé states that you had a life-threatening accident recently." She said, noting that it was the first thing listed. "Could you care to explain what happened?"

"Well, to be honest with you, ma'am." Will started. "I don't remember. I know that it was a car accident I got into one the way into Oregon. I hit my head and I can't remember everything before the accident."

"So you can't remember anything you did before?"

"Nothing at all."

"Do you have trouble remembering anything that happens recently?" She asked, wondering if he was the best choice of a waiter. "You don't suffer from short term memory loss, do you?"

"Nope. I can remember everything after the accident." Will said, assuring her. "I can recite all the road signs I passed on my way over here if it will ease your conscious."

"No, that is perfectly fine." She said, "I trust you...for whatever reason that is...Another thing though, you have no previous work listed. Why is that?"

"I know that I have worked before." Will assured, "It's just...I can't remember the specifics. I can't remember any specific jobs I have done. Anything that would prove that I was part of the workforce was destroyed in the accident."

Interestingly enough, despite the horrors in his past, Nancy noticed that he never stopped smiling. His mannerisms were very welcoming and friendly. He was a very attractive man, which would serve him well as a waiter.

"So what brought you to Oregon?" She continued.

"My kids live here." Will said. "Mabel and Dipper Pines."

"You're the Pines twins' father?" She no longer knew how to feel about the man.

"You know them?" Will asked.

"Everyone knows the Pines twins."

"So it would seem." Will said. "There hasn't been a person I have met who weren't good friends with my kids. I assume, just like all the others in this town, that you wish to know why I was never around."

"Well...yes actually."

"Well, from what I know." Will started. "When their mom died, I couldn't support them by myself. I was heartbroken as well as a 'stay at home' dad at the time. I couldn't work and watch them at the same time so I had to make the hard decision to put them in the foster system until my uncle-in-law took them in. I will forever be grateful to them."

"So you came to Oregon."

"Wanting to be apart of their lives." Will said. "That is as much as I know. Honestly, I don't remember any of it. It was hard to listen as my kids explained to me that I was an absent father. All I know is that I don't want to be that person anymore. I've forgotten it all and it's almost a blessing. But the one thing I did remember is my kids. Their names were the only thing I could remember when I woke up."

"Well…" She said, truly pitying the man, "It seems that fate has given you a second chance."

"And I am grateful for it."

"Well...you start work Monday." She said, making her decision.

"Really?"

"You're the last one I planned to interview and the rest had a couple screws loose." She said. "You seem like you'll make a good waiter: you seem good with people."

"Thank you." Will said, his smile growing. "I promise you I am not the lazy bum everyone probably thinks I am.

"Work starts at 5:00 am. Don't be late. Understand."

"Don't worry, I'll be on time." Will said, jokily, "I can remember that much."

Grateful for how the interview went, Will came out of Mall happy as he could be. He had gotten a job on the first interview without having knowledge of any prior work, a medical condition and having to explain why he was an absent father. Mabel had told him that he was sure to get the job because of his 'personality'. At the time he had thought she had found the smile dip again, but it appeared that she was right.

Happily, Will headed home to the Mystery Shack and changed out of the suit he had worn for the interview. Looking at the clock, he realized that if he left now he could meet up with Mabel and Dipper as they got out of school. Will quickly got dressed in a white polo shirt and a pair of black pants and headed out the door only to be stopped by Ford.

"Did the interview go well?" Ford asked, his usual poker face on and his voice emotionless.

"Very well, actually." Will said, forcing a smile and trying to make things not too awkward between them. "I start Monday. I meant to talk to you this but I will need you to make sure the kids get to school on time: I'll be gone before they wake up."

"Of course. What are you doing anyways?"

"Workwise or why I am heading out the door."

"Both."

"For work, I'm a waiter." Will said. "I'll try to find something better, but I need to start somewhere considering my résumé has nothing on it and I have no way of knowing what I have done before. As for where I'm going, I want to pick up Mabel and Dipper from school. They should be getting out soon and if I hurry I can meet up with them. Oh I've got dinner tonight so don't worry about it."

"Hm." Ford grumbled.

"Look…" Bill said, tired of having this conversation. "I know that you hate my guts: I would hate me too. But I want to be a part of my kids' lives now. I want what's best for them just as much as you do. I hope we can get along."

Trying to make amends, Will offered his hand to Ford for a handshake. Unfortunately, Ford seemed to be more upset at the handshake.

"Just go grab Mabel and Dipper." Ford said. "You may have my brother and my niece and nephew convinced that you are a changed man but you can't fool me. I don't trust you."

"Well…" Bill let out a sad sigh. "I guess I'll just have to prove myself to you."

"Good luck with that." Ford said, folding his arms. "Just go pick up Mabel and Dipper."

"See you later, Fordsie!" Will said the nickname for the first time. It made Ford cringe.

"Don't call me that!" Ford yelled as William slipped past him and ran away from the mystery shack.

Making his way to the school was pleasant as always. The forest was always so peaceful. Although Will preferred the more chaotic town, the forest seemed to call him...in a weird way. He couldn't figure out why, but the birch trees were so familiar to him and the forest was full of them.

As well, the butterflies were an added bonus.

"Aren't you a beauty?" Will said, peering at a beautiful purple butterfly that was perched on a pretty pink flower. "Mabel would absolutely love you. Knowing her she would name you something random. That girl always has something weird and funny to say about everything. I know she loves butterflies but her favorite animal is a pig. I can't remember a thing...but I know that someone close to me loved butterflies the most...they were...hm...what was her name?"

Realizing that the thought led to a dead end, Will continued to walk through the forest. To his surprise, it all felt familiar to him: like he had been there before. Of course he had walked this path every day to pick up Mabel and Dipper but every day he had the same feeling that the forest was familiar. It made no sense. He had never been in this forest before, according to Mabel and Dipper, because this was his first time in Gravity Falls. But everything from the forest to the townsfolk seemed familiar. Like he knew them all before.

Eventually, he reached the school. As expected, Mabel and Dipper had just gotten out of school just as Will walked up to it. The school was small, only having a hundred or so students for three grades. Mabel and Dipper were talking to their friends, one was a blonde girl with bangs and a fancy purple outfit. When seeing him, the smiles of their friends' faces disappeared and everything was silent. Will had gotten this reaction every day for the past five days and while it bothered him, he had understand that he wasn't exactly welcome among the town just yet.

"Hi dad!" Mabel said, the only one who looked happy to see him.

"Hi Mabel." Will smiled, happy to see his daughter. "Hi Dipper. You two ready to go?"

"Yep!" Mabel said.

"Sure…" Dipper said, not looking him in the eyes.

Something was wrong with Dipper. Will had observed his son for the past week and noticed that whenever he was in the room, Dipper wouldn't dare to meet his eyes and would only speak in one word answers. But around everyone else, Dipper wouldn't stop talking and seemed happy. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Dipper was uncomfortable around him. Will had to understand though, he had abandoned them and suddenly he's back in their lives without warning or reason. While Mabel had warmed up to him and Stan was fine with him so long as he did the dishes, Dipper and Ford were harder to please.

"Let's go then." Will said, starting to walk back towards the forest trail. "I'm in charge of dinner tonight. Any preferences?"

"Anything's fine…" Dipper responded in a hushed voice.

"Anything with sprinkles!" Mabel chimed in.

"How about chicken and rice." Will suggested. "And I can put sprinkles in your rice. How does that sound, Mabel?"

"Perfect!"

"Of course, Ford will skin me alive if I let you do that all the time." Will said. "If he asks, it's a special treat for finishing your first week of the eighth grade."

Pleased with the arrangement, Mabel smiled even larger than usual, if that was even possible.

Leaving the school grounds and heading into the forest, Will began having a conversation with Mabel. He tried to get Dipper to talk throughout the walk, but it was in vain.

"Your friends seem to be hilarious, Mabel." Will said, laughing at a story Mabel had just told involving her friends Candy and Grenda and glitter glue.

"They're great!" Mabel said. "We love all the same things: boybands, make-up, colors. Everything!"

"You haven't told me about Pacifica yet." Will asked. "What does she like?"

Aghast at what Will had said, Mabel stopped in her tracks.

"How...how do you know her name?" Mabel asked, an unusual worry in her voice. "I've never talked to you about her…"

"I...I don't know." Will admitted. "She's the rich blonde girl, right? She used to live in the mansion on the hill until...hm...why did she lose all of her wealth…"

"Yeah that's her." Mabel said with a nervous smile. "You must have overheard me talking about her at some point."

"Yeah." Will said, his head beginning to throb trying to remember where he heard all of that information.. "That's probably it…"

Generally, Will did not remember a thing when it came to his past. But once again, he had the feeling that he was starting to remember. But that shouldn't be possible. His type of memory loss shouldn't make his memory come back. Besides, he had never been to Gravity Falls before. He hadn't seen Pacifica until this week.

Useless to worry about, was all that Will thought. It was probably all in his mind.

Eventually, their journey ended and the three of them made it too the Mystery Shack. As promised, Will made dinner for the five of them. Ford hated to admit it, but Will was a really good cook. The chicken and rice was cooked perfectly: nothing burned or undercooked at all.

Truth be told, if the lie was true, Ford would completely trust Bill-Will. He was trying extra hard to be a good dad and Ford could honestly believe it was because of the want to be better; he wasn't just trying to win Ford's favor.

His commitment to his kids was remarkable. They had never told him how he acted: they hadn't really brainwashed him to be another person. They erased his memories: cleared his mind. He became the person he was currently.

Even with all of that, Ford still didn't trust him. Part of him believe that Will-Bill still knew who he was and was just putting on the facade to fool them all.

"What do you think, Grunkle Ford?" Mabel asked.

"What?" Ford said, shaking his head, realizing that he was zoning out in deep thought.

"Will wanted to watch a movie tonight." Mabel said. "Do you want to watch with us?"

"No thanks, Mabel." Ford responded, not really wanting to be near Will at the moment.

"Ah...come on Grunkle Ford." Mabel said, a pout on her face. "It'll be fun!"

Thinking it over took a short time. Ford watched Will as he washed dishes from dinner. You could hardly recognize him. His blonde hair looked more natural and the black that used to be on the sides had completely vanished. Instead of the glitzy attire that he usually wore, his clothes were normal: A white polo shirt and black pants. His eyes were the biggest change: they were once yellow with black slits for pupils like a cats, but now were a soft blue.

What was there to worry about? He was no longer Bill. He didn't look like Bill. He didn't act like Bill. He didn't even talk like Bill. Was there any harm to sit down and watch a movie with him?

"Sure. Why not." Ford finally said.

"Yes!" Mabel shouted in excitement.

In a few minutes, the five of them were sitting in the family room trying to decide what movie to put in. Mabel, of course won, and they soon started watching some weird, brightly colored movie from the 80's.

Nothing went wrong, until Will saw the two male leads: Zyler and Craz

"They look familiar." Will said. "Have I seen this movie before?"

"Nope." Stan said, opening his third soda. "And with luck you will never see it again."

"Man this music is giving me a headache." Will said, rubbing his temples. "Synthesized music is really painful to listen too…"

Something happened that frightened Ford. For a brief moment, Ford swore he saw Will's eyes turn gold. It was gone in an instant: Ford barely blinked with they returned to blue.

Don't worry, Ford told himself, Bill can't come back. It's impossible.

Rest of the movie went smoothly...in a way. Will's headache worsened whenever the synthesized music played but his eyes never returned to their yellow color for the rest of the film. Ford counted that as a success.

Eventually, and thankfully, the movie ended after only an hour and a half and it was time for the twins to go to bed. Ford stood in the doorway and listened to the conversation that was happening between Will-Bill and the twins.

"Ok Mabel." Will said, laughing. "It's time for bed. Come down from the ceiling at once."

Apparently, Mabel had been using her grappling hook.

"Can I try?" Will asked, not being able to resist the temptation.

"Of course!"

Mabel handed the device to Will who eagerly pointed to the ceiling and fired.

"Wow! This is so cool!" Will said, his smile becoming Cheshire like.

"See?" Mabel said. "That is why I didn't want to come down!"

"As awesome as this is..." Will said. "How do I get down?"

"Push that little button on the bottom of the handle."

Sounds of splintering wood and a squealing pig made it clear that Will had dropped, hard and fast, onto the floor.

"Wow. That was a rush." Will said. "I think I'll just leave the mission impossible stuff to Mabel. Now, I have some news."

"What is it?" Mabel asked as she got into bed.

"I got a job today." Will said, proudly. "I start work Monday. I work every day, all day except Sunday."

"Really?" Mabel said. "That's amazing! Where are you working?"

"I'm working as a waiter." Will admitted. "I'll get something better...eventually. But for now, it will do. I won't be around as much. But I was planning that we could go back-to-school shopping on my day off. I know the school year has already started and it will be a bit b\late, but it would really fun to go out together...you know..just the three of us. How does that sound, Dipper?"

"Sound greats." Dipper said, not even turning towards him.

"Sounds amazing!" Mabel said.

"Good." Will said, wishing that Dipper would show a bit more enthusiasm. "Then we'll have a family day as soon as I get my first pay check. For now, it's bed time."

"Night." Dipper said, though it was obvious that he would be up for several more hours, reading.

"Goodnight Bill." Mabel said.

"Bill?" Will questioned, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

"Sorry. Good night dad." Mabel said, correcting her mistake.

"Good night, you two."

 **Author's Note: I must sincerely apologize to the writer CrimsonCow on not getting this chapter out in the time frame that I promised. I take full responsibility for my actions and promise that the same mistake will not be made again. I won't give excuses (even though I have a list a mile long) because I don't believe in excuses: I believe in results. I ask for CrimsonCow's forgiveness on the matter and promise that I will keep my promise of updating whenever the codes are cracked.**

 **With that out of the way, I must explain the code. I got several PM's stating that the code was too easy. I hope that I will never have these complaints again. I went back and made the codes a lot harder to crack.**

 **For this chapter, I have two hints for you: I love poetry and dialogue isn't important. That's all the hints you're getting.**

 **Good luck.**


	12. Chapter 12: What's a Dream Demon?

**Chapter 12**

 **Author's Note: such a shame. I make the code harder and no one is able to crack it. Pity. Must I always bold things so you know which letters are to be used in a code? I'll give another hint for the last chapter's code, just to be nice. Do you remember doing those poems where you spell out a word like your name or a season vertically and then you had to pick a word that starts with that letter?**

 **Same basic principal with the next few codes as well as the last one.**

 **Just remember that the code will not be in the dialog: just in the describing paragraphs.**

 **Same rules apply as usually: you have to crack the code in order to get the next chapter, but in this case you have to crack two chapters worth of codes.**

 **I am nothing if not a man of my word.**

Chapter 12:

Will (Bill) was having a wonderful time at work, as usual.

It was Saturday night: one of the busier nights. Will was busting tables, taking orders, and trying not to get food spilled on his white shirt all while smiling from ear to ear. He loved his job. Being around people all day was exhilaratingly fun. He would always be talking, using words to put the customers in a good mood and, more importantly, making their tips larger.

Life seemed to be going his way.

"Hi dad!" A familiar voice said as she entered the restaurant.

Looking around, Will saw Mabel, Dipper and a few of their friends walk into the restaurant. Will couldn't be sure but he thought that their names were Candy and Grenda with the third one definitely being Pacifica.

"Hi, shooting star." Will said.

Shooting star? Where did that come from?

Mabel seemed to be equally confused at his sudden new nickname. And a little worried by the looks of it.

"How was your day, kids?" Will asked as he wiped down a table near to them.

"It was pretty great! There is going to be a school dance next week and Dipper refuses to go though."

"Mabel!" Dipper said, blushing, "He doesn't need to know that."

"Aw is Dipper all shy at parties," Will teased. "Kid, don't worry about it. Parties are fun. Someone always spikes the punch and you don't remember a thing. I think. I don't remember if you remember anything after a party."

Instinctively, Mabel laughed. Dipper was not really impressed. The rest of the group chuckled a bit but mostly just at the face Dipper was making.

"Don't be so serious, kid." Will said as he ruffled Dipper's hair.

"Will!" A woman shouted "Table two!"

"That would be my boss." Will said to the twins. "Tomorrow we go shopping, ok? Maybe see a movie or something."

"Promise?" Mabel said. "I need a dress for the dance and Dipper needs some party clothes!"

"Mabel. I've already told you that I am not going."

"Shush. You don't decide that." Mabel put her finger to Dipper's mouth, preventing him from speaking. "So you promise you'll take us out?"

"I'll shake on it." Will said holding out his hand.

Looking at Will's out stretched hand, Mabel looked a bit frightened. Dipper looked utterly terrified. Bill couldn't understand why.

"Pinky promise." Mabel said holding out her smallest finger.

"Fine. Pinky promise." Will said, sealing the deal that way before the twins and their friends exited the restaurant.

Every moment spent with his kids felt like heaven to Will. But even he could noticed that something was not right.

Sometimes strange things happened in this town, Will began to notice. There were drawings of triangles everywhere throughout the town but the town avoided these drawings at all costs. As well as all of the superstitious stories the town made up about not going into the birch forest at the edge of town.

More worrisome is that most of the stories he overheard were stories involving his kids.

Overall, Will felt safe in the town. But he still had this nasty feeling in his stomach whenever he stayed in one place too long. It all seemed to be familiar to him. He could almost sense the danger in the town. Every story the town folks told seemed to almost involve Mabel and Dipper almost dying. What parent wouldn't be concerned?

Realizing that he had been drifting off into space for the past few minutes, Will jolted and then quickly went back to work.

Eventually, Will's shift ended and he began walking home. He walked through the birch wood forest, it being the fastest.

Then he saw something that he almost couldn't believe.

He almost mistook it for a bear (although that would have been terrifying as well) but after a few seconds, he realized that it was definitely not a bear. The creature looked almost alien with a slimy pink body. It was twice his own height and width and had long claws. It almost looked insect like.

"Ah Bill Cipher: the king of chaos himself. Come to take over the world I see." The creature said, his voice deep and menacing with a hint of laughter in its throat.

"Wha...What?" Will looked at the creature in confusion before closing his eyes and talking to himself. "I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming. This isn't real. I will open my eyes and Mabel will be jumping on my stomach to get me up. I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming."

"Dream demons can't dream." The creature said, drawing closer.

"Wha...dream demon?" Will asked as he looked around.

Another thing was in the monster's place. Not a thing: a person. A very important person.

"Mabel!" Will called, running towards her. "What are you doing out here? You know it's not safe after dar…"

No more was Mabel. She was morphing into another shape in a horrifying manner before Will's eyes. Within a matter of seconds she had changed into Dipper.

"Dip...Dipper?" Will asked, his head seeming to spin like a top.

Then the figure changed again and again: so fast that Will could barely process what was happening. First he was a small man with a white beard and pointy hat. Then a tall slender man. Then what appeared to be a cross between a unicorn and a leprechaun which was probably the most horrifying thing he had ever seen. All the rest went so fast that he couldn't even make out what they were.

"Do you recognize me now, all powerful one?" the creature said, now appearing as a triangle with a top hat and bowtie.

"I am insane." Will said.

"Right you are." The creature's low voice told him. "But that's what makes you powerful. You never know the limits so you always break them. So who are you going to torture first? I would love to join in. Of course I would let you kill the Pine's family."

"Kill the Pine's?" Will was going into shock, his brain overwhelmed with information and weirdness. "What? No. Never. They are my family."

"You hate them." The creature said, transforming back into his original pink insect form. "You hate all humans."

Hallucinations, Will decided. His car accident was making him see and hear things that weren't there.

Everything he was seeing wasn't there. It couldn't have been there.

Just close your eyes, Will told himself, and he'll be gone.

Opening his eyes, Will saw himself staying back at himself. Same face and height and body style but there were a few differences.

Key differences including: his double's blonde hair had black in it, his eyes were gold and not blue and his outfit was what appeared to be a bright yellow tailcoat with black pants and knee high black boots.

"You...you've lost your memory." the creature said. "You were beaten by those kids!"

"Beaten? Wha...What?" Will said before shaking his head. "This isn't real, this isn't real."

"Oh this is real alright." The creature said, pointing to his Will-like body with its flowing tailcoat. "It's you who are fake. The all-powerful Bill Cipher is gone with only his shell remaining."

Everything was confusing and strange in Will's mind. He didn't remember fainting but he must have. When he woke, he was still in the woods just now he was surrounded by members of the Pine's family.

"Dad? Are you alright." Mabel said, her eyes full of concern.

"Nope." Will said as he turned to his side and threw up. "Ah that's better."

"We got worried when you didn't come home last night." Dipper said, "We...we didn't know what happened to you."

Relieved to see his family, Will smiled a bit though his head still hurt.

"Yeah...I start hallucinating I think." Will said, putting his hand to his head. "There was this creature...he kept changing forms and stuff. Man what was in that burger I ate at the restaurant...he changed into all sorts of different creatures that looked like rejects from Alice in Wonderland or something. Then he turned into me...except it didn't look like me...I had gold eyes and I was wearing a tailcoat...and a bunch of yellow. And then he called me...what was it...a dream demon. Yeah. A dream demon. What the heck is a dream demon anyways?"


	13. Chapter 13: Faint

Chapter 13

 **Author's note: this chapter is dedicated to a guest who didn't give their name. So yeah. Good for you unnamed person. Also after this chapter I will be changing how I do codes. Its restricting my writing and it's driving me crazy having to go back and edit everything.**

"So you're telling me that this town is full of monsters?" Will said, feeling his head ache come back.

"Yep!" Mabel said as she went through the racks of clothing at in the store called JKNickel. "Some of them are really nice. And others..."

"Try to tear apart your innards." Dipper finished as he tried on a new pair of bright red sneakers.

Will had brought the twins to the mall just as he had promised them he would. The store was just one giant room with the registers in the center and different sections occupying the different walls and corners. It was rather messing with women's shoes in the men's section and um...ladies undergarments in the boys sections. Will couldn't help but wonder if they had done some of that on purpose.

Interesting enough, Mabel and Dipper seemed pretty calm as they explained the weirdness in Gravity Falls to Will for the ninth time. Will, on the other hand, was having a rough time.

Learning that the world was filled with monsters was a hard pill to swallow.

Learning that the town that your kids grew up in was filled with deadly beasts was an even harder pill to swallow.

However, as much as Will wanted to deny it: he couldn't. Ford had taken him out to the forest and lured out a magical creature: a gnome. The gnome in question then stole Will's wallet and it took over two hours (and a leaf blower) for Mabel and Dipper to get it back.

"So weird stuff like gnomes and goblins just roam around. And you see them every day?" Will continued, his mind still boggled.

"I wouldn't say every day." Mabel said, taking another hot pink shirt off of the rack.

"I'd say about 44 days this summer we saw something strange." Dipper said, walking around in the shoes he was trying on to see if they were comfortable. "Give or take a few."

As Dipper walked around, he tripped on the band connecting the shoes and fell flat on his face.

"You ok there, Pine Tree?" Will said, noticing Dipper's pine tree symbol on his hat.

Something was weird...where did 'Pine Tree' come from? Dipper seemed to be confused as well. A bit worried as well.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine." Dipper said, picking himself off of the floor.

Other than that, the day went normal. Mabel and Dipper were able to pick out some very nice clothes. Actually...Mabel was the only one who actually went clothes shopping. Dipper just picked out a red shirt and a pair of grey shorts and spent most of the time in a video game nerd store.

Part of Will enjoyed the day. Mabel kept him entertained and laughing the entire time but he had to admit that it was hard to watch her try on dresses for a school dance. He barely knew his daughter but watching her grow up was hard. Of course right after that she proceeded to eat an entire jar of sprinkles without using her hands so he wasn't too worried.

Eventually, the sun began to set and the trio headed home with Will's pockets being a lot lighter than they had been at the beginning of the day. Mabel was on Will's shoulders, singing loudly about remembering to remember. Dipper was stuck carrying most of her things as they walked back home to the Mystery Shack. Will, while still trying to get over the fact that magic and monsters and those childhood fairy tale creatures actually did exist, he was pretty happy knowing that they made his kids lives interesting which in turn made them happy.

Nothing perfect can ever remain so.

Eventually, someone (or rather something) had to ruin it.

"What is that." Will said, staring at something large blocking their path.

"Bill Cipher!" The creature said. "You will be destroyed!"

"Again, what is that?" Will said.

Dipper stepped in front of Will, seeming to protect him.

"A minotaur." Dipper said, narrowing his eyes. "They are all obsessed with being manly and their greatest weakness is girly pop music."

"Most of the time they are delightful." Mabel said, as she climbed off of Will's shoulders.

"I will tear out his spleen for what he did!" the Minotaur screamed as it bared its teeth.

"Can't we ever meet anyone normal on this road?" Will asked in despair.

"Bill Cipher! You will die!"

Bill Cipher? Why does that seem familiar...

Other person, creature thing called will Bill. And each one seemed like...well like they wanted to kill him.

"Go away, minotaur!" Dipper shouted at the creature.

"Yeah go away you muscular beast!"

"Mabel."

"Sorry but his abs are huge!"

Then things got even weirder.

"Step away from the dream demon, Pines, and let me tear him apart!"

"Never!" Mabel shouted.

"You are not allowed to come near him or we will fight you ourselves!" Dipper said taking a fighting stance.

"Like I'm afraid of two mortals." the Minotaur shouted.

He rushed towards them. Will thought that they were all goners but then Mabel said some weird chant in Latin and a pink shield surrounded the three of them.

He continued to punch the shield but nothing hit the three of them.

"Why isn't this working!" the Minotaur said each word with a punch to the shield.

"Magic!" Mabel said magically making sparkles appear.

"Mabel! Will!" Dipper said, pointing towards him. "Baby steps!"

Insane. Will had finally gone insane. That had to be the answer.

"You two aren't human." The Minotaur said, finally giving up on punching the shield. "You two are half dream demon!"

"Yep and proud of it!"

"Mabel!" Dipper said.

"You're the kids of that demon!" The Minotaur pointed at Mabel and Dipper. "You two will be destroyed along with your monster of a father!"

Seeing that this could only end badly, Dipper snapped his fingers and transported the three of them back to the mystery shack.

"We were there...now we're here...he tried to kill us." Will said shaking back and forth, his eyes wide open. "Magic sparkles...dream demon...what the heck is a dream demon... this is a dream, right?"

Everything was spinning. Magic was real. Monsters were real. His kids were magical.

"Did he just say 'Dream Demon'?" Ford asked as he walked in on the scene of a very sick looking Will.

"Yeah." Dipper said. "A Minotaur attacked us and we had to use our powers."

"He looks like he's about to hurl." Stan said.

"Don't you realize how bad this is?" Ford said, scolding his brother. "He could realize everything and we could all be in serious danger."

Yeah...everything had to be a dream.

"Someone catch him!" Mabel said rapidly, "I think he's gonna

Everything turned black. Will's eyes rolled into his skull and he fell onto the floor with a thud.

"Faint." Mabel said the final word while looking at her unconscious dad.

"Maybe there's a chance that he won't remember anything." Dipper said.

"Hopefully...probably not." Ford said, thinking.

"We could try the memory gun again." Dipper suggested.

"If we do that again he'll forget how to breathe…" Ford said. "Which wouldn't be so bad thinking about it."

"Grunkle Ford!" Mabel said. "You promised that you wouldn't try to kill him. Man I hate how that has to be a rule…"

"If he remembers who he is he will try to kill us!" Ford said, folding his arms.

"He can change." Dipper said. "I think he deserves a second chance…"

"A second chance." Ford scoffed. "That demon doesn't deserve a second chance."

"Ford, everyone deserves a second chance." Mabel said.

"He does not deserve a second chance." Ford said.

"But he is going to get one." Dipper said, standing up to his grunkle. "We just need to hope that he doesn't remember who he once was."

"What if he does remember?" Ford said, raising an eyebrow.

"We hope that he hates his former self."

Sending a demon back to hell was still high on the list on things Ford wanted to do, but he complied with Mabel and Dipper's request. One thing was still certain: Ford would do anything to protect his family. He just didn't want to add another member to his list of family members.


	14. Chapter 14: pest

Chapter 14

 **Author's note: once again this chapter is dedicated to a guest who didn't leave there name. Once again: good for you. As well, instead of having a code I will be having a riddle for this chapter.**

 _ **First think of the person who lives in disguise,**_

 __ _ **Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.**_

 __ _ **Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend,**_

 __ _ **The middle of middle and the end of the end?**_

 __ _ **And finally give me the sound often heard,**_

 __ _ **During the search for a hard-to-find word.**_

 __ _ **Now string them together and answer me this,**_

 __ _ **Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss.**_

 **I hope you guys have read some books this summer because it might make it easier.**

Dipper was home the night of the ba to school party. While mabel was 'partying the night away', as she called it, Dipper was in the basement with Ford discussing their pest problem.

"So what DID Bill do to you while keeping you under lock and key?" Ford asked as he opened up the newer journal 4 and began writing.

"He taught us magic, mostly." Dipper said as he searched through journal number 1. "He even taught us that spell that was able to torture him."

"What does the spell do specifically?"

"Well. It makes him feel agony."

"Physically or emotionally?"

"I think it's both." Dipper said. "There's something I've been meaning to show you."

Dipper reached into his vest and pulled out his journal, a navy blue hardback book with a white pine tree symbol on the front of it. The last time Ford had seen that book, it had been relatively empty with only a study about time traveling butterflies within it. Now it was filled to the brim with several pieces of paper and pictures crammed into it.

"Your journal?" Ford asked, coming over to look at Dipper's research.

"Well sort of." Dipper said, opening the journal. "See, while trapped in the fear-amid, Bill brought us most of our stuff which included my journal. I began writing down anything and everything I was learning about him. Maybe it could help us understand his origins. You've said before that you don't really know his backstory."

"I know little to nothing about Bill's past." Ford said, "Of course, knowing his origins might help us diagnose whatever thing messed up his brain which in turn could help us...well fix him."

"That's what I was hoping." Dipper said. "Here. Here's the page where I wrote down everything he told us about his past."

" _He says that he came from another dimension where they were all powerful."_ Ford read aloud. " _Power's were amongst everyone but there was no emotion: everything was thought of logically. There were no colors. No depth._ This sounds a bit like a book called 'The Taker'."

"There's more." Dipper said, beginning to read his journal aloud. " _They seemed to live in a class monarchy controlling the entire dimension, not just individual states or even planets. They were separated by species. While most is unknown of the order of the monarchy, it is evident that triangles are the lowest."_

 _"_ Much like that shape themed dimension I came across." Ford said. "The triangles were at the bottom of the food chain there as well."

"Yeah, I remembered that when he said that." Dipper said. "There is something else. Bill's world was destroyed...by himself. But I've known that for a while."

"How have you known that?" Ford said. "The legends of Bill I have researched don't tell us that."

"Long story involving a large, all-seeing gecko thing." Dipper said. "I asked him what he knew about Bill. He gave me this long prophecy about him."

"Let me hear it."

"Sure." Dipper flipped through the book before stopping on a page near the front. " _60 degrees that comes in threes, watches from within birch trees._ "

"That's obviously Bill." Ford said. "Go on."

" _Saw his own dimension burn. Misses home and can't return."_ Dipper recited.

"Misses home?" Ford questioned. "I understand the feeling."

" _Says he's happy: he's a liar._ " Dipper continued. " _Blame the arson for the fire._ "

"My pity is gone." Ford said. "He burned his own dimension?"

"Yes, he destroyed his own dimension...and feels bad for it." Dipper said, his voice filled with pity. " _If he wants to shirk the blame, he'll have to invoke my name. One way to absolve his crime: a different form, a different time._ "

"A different form…" Ford said, thinking,"Hm…"

"While we were trapped in the fear-amid," Dipper began. "He was never in his triangle form: always in his human form. Does that count?"

"Possibly...but I don't think so." Ford said. "That prophecy refers to Bill calling upon the power of that gecko thing you were talking about for change. His change was intentional...well sort of. You brainwashed him with that memory gun."

"Don't remind me…" Dipper grumbled.

"You did the right thing, Dipper." Ford said, unfeelingly, "Think of it as restarting a computer: Bill is basically back at his factory setting."

"He's not a machine." Dipper muttered,

"He's not human either." Ford reminded.

"The prophecy states that he has feelings." Dipper said, pointing to the book. "He's home sick."

"Just because he is capable to feel empathy does not make him human." Ford said. "Nor does it forgive everything he has done. He is a complete psychopath, something that you and your sister seem to have forgotten."

"You said it yourself," Dipper said, flipping to another place in his journal. "Bill is back to his original factory setting. I honestly think the person he is now, Will, is who he truly is."

"Will is a thing that you programmed him to be." Ford said. "You and your sister planted all these happy-go-lucky ideas in his head. Every nice thing that he does to you is not his own actions: you made him that way."

"I know that there is good in him." Dipper said. "There has to be. I've seen it."

"You're sounding like your sister." Ford said. "You need to open your eyes, Dipper. I know that you want a father, it's understandable. But Bill is not who he is now. He is going to remember everything at some point. And now that he knows that the paranormal is real, as well that his kids are 'magical', it won't be long before he remembers that he's an all powerful dream demon."

"I know...I know…" Dipper said. "But there's not much we can do to stop it except try to make him not hate us."

"And what if he remembers," Ford pointed out. "and wants to take over the world again with chances of that happening being very high?"

"Then...then…" Dipper flipped to another page in his book. "I use this spell."

"He taught you how to open up to another dimension?" Ford said, reading the page title.

"Yes. But it's very difficult." Dipper said. "For starters you have to be a dream demon who has obtained a physical form to go into any universe with the timeline of earth being present."

"How does one gain a physical form?"

"Well, Bill's already obtained his." Dipper said. "He got it when he entered here, remember? As for Mabel and I, we were born with it considering we are half human. Anything with a tangible physical form are able to travel to any dimension and timeline where the earth is present and move objects around. But if Bill ever goes rouge…'

"Which is highly possible."

"Bill having a physical form will be the true problem." Dipper continued. "It's...it's rather complicated. Have you ever heard of the Schrodinger's cat theorem?"

"Oh yes I have…" Ford said as if he was remembering something painful. "Also known as the many-worlds theory."

"Well it's true." Dipper said.

"Of course it's true." Ford said. "I've lived it."

"Really? I want to hear that story."

"Another time. Go on with your dimensional analysis."

"Well say the earth was destroyed by the atomic bomb." Dipper said. "This timeline would have zero remains of humanity and possible no evidence of our solar system In this universe, you wouldn't need a physical form or would die if you had one or you would tear the fabric of the universe apart or something like that. So if we ever needed to send Bill to a realm where the world and its surroundings doesn't exist…"

"He can't be in his physical form." Ford said. "So how do we get rid of it."

"Simple actually...horrifying though." Dipper admitted, not really wanting to think about it. "There is that spell...the one that tortures a dream demon."

"That one you used to stop Bill the first time?"

"Yes...well...it attacks his physical form…" Dipper said. "If he were to give up his physical form…"

"The pain would stop." Ford said. "Then you could transport him to another dimension."

"Only if I need to." Dipper said, putting his foot down. "I have no intention of torturing someone on the possibility that he could hurt us."

"Fine." Ford said. "I won't have you use this plan unless we need to."

"Good." Dipper said, flipping through his book once more "Now, I want to show you some spells. They're really cool."

But Ford wasn't really paying attention to the things Dipper was telling him. He was more focused on trying to figure out a way to make Bill disappear without making Dipper furious with him.


	15. Chapter 15: Insomia

**Author's note: This chapter is dedicated to dog1056 for cracking the riddle first.**

Chapter 15

Will woke up with a splitting headache which was becoming accustomed to. His experience with the twins and their magic had happened several days ago but it was still fresh in his mind. When he had woken up the next morning from the experience, he had thought _i_ t had all been a dream: bu _t_ Mabel told him otherwise. Will still hadn't believed it but then Dipper, Stan and Ford confirmed it. The twin _s_ (younger) even showed him some of their magic to confirm it. Bill went to work that day in shock but did his best to _h_ id it.

This morning held the s _a_ me anxiety as that day. The fear of the unknown, or in this case, the fear of the known, terrified Bill...Will.

After a week of just p _r_ etending that everything was perfect, Will finally broke.

He decided as he watche _d_ his kids sleep peacefully that they would move out of Gravity Falls. This town was far too dangerous, even with their powers. He just had to get them away from it all.

…

Will had come home late _t_ hat night, around tw _o_ in the morning. He did his normal routine of preparing for bed: changing into a white tank top and a pair of navy blue sweats, brushing his teeth, and finally checking on Mabel and Dipper before falling asleep on the downstairs couch. Only, when he went to their room, he found that Dipper was not in his bed.

Panic quickly set in. He quickly _s_ earched every room in the house and couldn't find him. He was about to go into Ford's 3 floor basement to look for him, but then he got a feeling to go check on the roof of the building.

Will quick _l_ y located the ladder to the roof and climbed up. Once on the roof, he looked around, looking for any sign of Dipper.

There he was, at the edge of the roof, his l _e_ gs hanging over the side. It was clear that he had been crying because his eyes were completely red.

"Hey..." Will said, walking over to him. "What are you doing up h _e_ re?"

"Just...just thinking." Dip _p_ er said, starting to stand up, "I'll get inside, Mabel's probably looking for me."

"It's nearly 3 in the morning." Will said, "your sister is fast asleep."

"I...I guess I just lost track of time." Dipper said, now on his feet.

"You can stay here for a little while longer." Will said, his parental feelings kicking in. "A few more minutes can't hurt."

Dipper sat back down and Will s _a_ t down next to him.

"How's school?" Will said, not really sure of how to start the conversation.

"Fine." Dipper said, "it always has been. Heading over to the high school for certain classes is tiring though."

"You're...you're taking geometry, right?"

"As well as biology, and human geography." Dipper said, "hones _t_ ly the only middle school class I'm taking is P.E."

"You're really intelligent, aren't ya?"

"I guess so." Dipper said, "I know that Ford wanted to make me his apprentice. Ford says that, if I'd like to, I could become home schooled by him. it's...it's what me and Mabel argued about before...well before school started."

Will could tell that there was something more to it...something that Dipper refused to talk about. What had happened before the summer ended?

"I told her that I wasn't going to go back to school." Dipper said, "Ford had asked me to join him in exploring the world on a scientific exploratio _n_. I was planning on saying yes. I mean, I love Gravity Falls, and my sister and Stan. But I knew that there was something more out there."

"Why did you say no?" Will asked.

"Something...something happened." Dipper said, "I just figured out that I can't be away from Mabel: she has always been there for me and I always want to be there for her. She can be irritating sometimes, but I still love her. Though I would still have loved to see the world."

"Is Ford still planning on leaving?"

"I don't think so." Dipper shrugged, turning away from Will.

"Why not?" Will asked, try _i_ ng to get a bit more information out of him as well as try to provide comfort.

"Well...because of you."

"Yeah, Ol' Fordsie doesn't seem to like me, right Pine Tree."

Dipper cringed at his nickname.

"I did it again, didn't I?" Will said.

"Did what?"

"Remember something I'm not supposed to." Will said.

"Uh...um...what would give you that idea?" Dipper stammered.

"I lost my memory, not my brains." Will said, his eye brow cocked, "Why do you panic when I call you Pine Tree?"

"Because...because that's…"Dipper tried to explain the situation without causing more damage. "Because that's what the old you called me."

"The old me?"

"See, when you had your accident," Dipper said, telling the truth but not all of it, "your personality changed: you chan _g_ ed. You are a better person now and the last thing I want is for you to go back to being…"

"Neglectful?"

"Yeah...that."

"Did I go by 'Bill' before the car crash?"

"Yeah."

"Bill Cipher." Will said, "Kinda catchy. But I'd prefer to be called Will Pines."

"You want to use my mom's last name as your own?" Dipper said, a bit shocked.

"Yeah why not." Will said. "I can't remember who I was before, and I _h_ onestly don't want to. And by the looks of things I was a horrible person. I don't want to be whatever man I was before. Might as well show it by changing my last name. As long as it's fine by you of course."

"I...I guess I'm ok with it." Dipper said. "And I'm sure Mabel will be alright with it. Ford on the other hand…"

"Yeah." Will said. "I must have done some pretty awful stuff to make your grunkle hate me as much as he does."

"You have no idea." Dipper said under his brea _t_ h, inaudible to Will before gaining volume. "I'm...I'm going to go to bed."

"Wait, kid." Will said, grabbing his arm. "Look...I know I've hurt you. But I don't want you to avoid me anymore. Don't think I haven't noticed that you hate being around me. I want to make it up to you, whatever I did."

"You aren't the reason I come out here at night." Dipper said.

"You come out here every night?"

"Well...well yeah." Dipper said, "I just...I just can't sleep. But it's not because of you."

"Hm…"Will said, not really believing him. "Look...just...just go try to get some sleep."

The two of them went back into the shack and off to their separate rooms. Neither slept that night.

Will was too concerned about Dipper and his apparent insomnia.

Dipper's mind was too plagued with guilt to allow him to rest.


End file.
